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Northrop Grumman
Welcome to Rocket Report edition 3.31! Most of the news this week has happened with larger rockets, with one particularly interesting item regarding NASA’s Falcon Heavy rocket and the Europa Clipper worth checking out. It’s also exciting to see NASA and Boeing move the launch date for Starliner’s second test flight forward.
As always, we do 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.
Firefly seeks to raise additional funds. Firefly Aerospace said this week it is looking to raise $ 350 million to ramp up production and work on a new, larger vehicle, SpaceNews reports. Speaking during a webinar on Tuesday on space industry investments, Firefly CEO Tom Markusic said the funding would support its long-term growth by bringing the Alpha rocket into service as the company develops a middle class launcher named Beta.
Bet on growth … “Over the next five years,” he said, “we want to take Firefly from a billion dollar company when we fly Alpha and the SUV to, in about five years, be around $ 10 billion. business. ” The SUV Markusic was referring to is an upper stage called the Space Utility Vehicle that can act as a space tug. The Alpha rocket is expected to debut in a few weeks and Beta could debut as early as 2024, Markusic said. (submitted by BH and Ken the Bin)
Virgin Orbit signs commercial launch contract. Fresh off the first successful flight of its LauncherOne rocket, Virgin Orbit announced on Monday that it has been selected by Dutch space engineering firm Innovative Solutions in Space to launch the Royal Netherlands Air Force’s very first satellite, a 6U CubeSat called BRIK- II. .
A carpooling mission … Currently slated for launch in 2021, BRIK-II will fly as a carpooling payload during an upcoming LauncherOne mission. Virgin Orbit is working through its subsidiary VOX Space to add payloads to this mission of the US Department of Defense space test program. The mission will depart from Mojave Air & Space Port in California. (submitted by NotYourUsername, platykurtic and Ken the Bin)
Starliner launch date moves to the left. NASA said this week that it and Boeing are now targeting the launch of Starliner’s second unmanned flight test as part of the agency’s commercial crew program no earlier than Thursday, March 25. This is four days earlier than the previous date announced by NASA, and this is due to the changing availability of an Atlas V rocket.
Next rocket … Also this week, the United Launch Alliance announced that it has delayed the launch of the STP-3 mission for the US Space Force “to allow the customer to assess the launch readiness of the STP Satellite. -6 “. This mission was supposed to be launched before Starliner, but its delay now means the ULA can focus on the Boeing test flight. (submitted by Ken the Bin and platykurtic)
Crew named for first fully private orbital crew launch. The crew of the first fully private orbital space mission will include the second oldest person to launch into space, the second Israeli in space, the 11th Canadian to fly into space and the first former astronaut of the NASA to Return to the International Space Station, CollectSpace Reports. Houston-based Axiom Space is organizing the mission.
Launch within a year … The launch on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is planned: Larry Connor, an American real estate and technology entrepreneur; Eytan Stibbe, businessman and former Israeli fighter pilot; Mark Pathy, a Canadian investor and philanthropist; and Michael Lopez-Alegria, a retired NASA astronaut. This Ax-1 mission could be launched as early as January 2022 (submitted by Ken the Bin and Tfarog04)
Japan moves to next phase of H3 rocket testing. The main stage of the country’s next-generation launcher, H3, will be transported to its launch site at the Tanegashima Space Center for a series of tests starting in February. A wet dress rehearsal is scheduled for March, when the launcher will be loaded with cryogenic thruster, simulating the work leading up to a launch, SpaceNews reports.
No launch date yet … These are encouraging signs for the rocket originally slated for 2020, but which has had to overcome issues with its new LE-9 main engine. However, no target launch date has yet been chosen (or at least not made public). JAXA indicates that the launch date of the first H3 rocket will be “decided after coordination with the state of development of the onboard satellite and associated organizations”. (submitted by Ken the Bin and platykurtic)
Falcon 9 launches record number of satellites. On Sunday, SpaceX launched its first dedicated carpooling mission, named Transporter-1, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. With this launch of 143 total satellites, SpaceX surpassed the previous record holder for most satellites launched in a single mission, set by the Indian polar satellite launch vehicle in 2017, reports Ars.
How popular is it? … SpaceX did not disclose many details on the popularity of its ridesharing program or the number of payloads reserved in future launches. However, several customers have expressed surprise at the cost and speed of the service offered by SpaceX. The company plans to launch two of these ridesharing missions per year on the Falcon 9 rocket.
NASA requests information on Clipper commercial launch. NASA has issued a solicitation for a commercial launcher to send its Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. “The launcher must deliver a Europa Clipper spacecraft weighing at least 6,065 kg with Mars-Earth-Gravity-Assist trajectory characteristics,” says the solicitation. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is the only commercial rocket available capable of following this trajectory. If the Delta IV Heavy booster was used, it would need to perform a flyby over Venus, requiring additional thermal protection for Clipper.
So why not just award the contract to SpaceX? … For years, Congress mandated the launch of Clipper on the Space Launch System rocket. However, recent wind tunnel tests have shown that the torsional vibration that SLS boosters would induce is very high and would require a substantial overhaul of the spacecraft. So Congress agreed to allow the mission to transition to a private rocket. However, since some in Congress aren’t SpaceX’s biggest fans, they wanted NASA to open up competition for rockets that aren’t yet flying, including Vulcan and New Glenn. In response to a question on Twitter, Tory Bruno of United Launch Alliance refused to say whether a base model Vulcan could complete the trajectory NASA wants. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Trump leaves Biden with rocket dilemma. Only two years have passed since then-Vice President Mike Pence offered this unconditional love to NASA SLS engineers: “If American industry can provide essential business services without government development, we will buy. to bring American astronauts to the moon in the next five years, then it will be commercial rockets. “
Well maybe not … Today, the former vice president’s ambitious 2024 goal of landing on the moon has become out of reach. Pence has left office. And of course, the SLS rocket didn’t launch in 2020. Now it’s pretty sure not to be launched until 2022. So what comes next? This article by Ars examines what could happen to NASA and the SLS rocket it is building to send humans back to the moon.
SpaceX clears the spacecraft’s launch attempt on Thursday. SpaceX was preparing to launch its SN9 prototype on Thursday, but a little before 11 a.m. local time, the “temporary flight restrictions” for the day’s launch were lifted. Before the scrub, engineers and technicians prepared the vehicle for launch. Local residents were also evacuated.
Elon not happy … The launch appears to have been delayed because the FAA did not grant final approval for the 10 km launch attempt. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX tweeted about the FAA, saying, “Their rules are for a handful of consumable launches per year from a few government facilities. Under these rules, humanity will never reach Mars.” Temporary flight restrictions are also in place for Friday, which is now the earliest possible time for the vehicle to take off. The weather should be better for SN9 on Friday.
Space Force terminates agreements with Northrop, Blue Origin. At the end of 2020, the US Space Force officially ended the launch technology partnerships signed in October 2018 with Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, reports SpaceNews. These were six-year public-private partnerships where the government and contractors agreed to invest in rocket development and the infrastructure needed to participate in the National Security Space Launch Program.
Not much? … The agreements with Northrop and Blue Origin ended because neither of them was selected for the program. From October 2018 to December 2020, Blue Origin was paid $ 255.5 million. The original six-year deal was worth $ 500 million. Northrop Grumman raised $ 531.7 million in the same time period, nearly two-thirds of LSA’s total value of $ 792 million. In return for this investment, the Space Force will obtain limited rights to data and hardware developed by the companies under the agreements.
Northrop performs rocket engine validation test. On Jan.21, Northrop Grumman said it performed a ground validation test of a 63-inch-diameter epoxy graphite engine in Promontory, Utah. This variant of the company’s GEM 63 strap-on thruster was developed in partnership with the United Launch Alliance to provide additional lift capacity to the Vulcan Centaur rocket.
Ready for a rocket … The GEM 63XL engine fired for approximately 90 seconds, producing nearly 449,000 pounds of thrust to validate the performance of the engine design. Additionally, the test shot verified internal engine insulation, thruster grain, ballistics and nozzle in an air conditioned environment. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Next three launches
January 31: Falcon 9 | Starlink-18 | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | 12:00 UTC
February 15: Soyuz | Progress 77P | Baikonur Cosmodrome | 04:45 UTC
February 20: Antares | Northrop Grumman-15 ISS Supply Mission | Wallops Island, Virginia | 17:36 UTC
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