Rocket Report: SpaceX lands in the Bahamas; ULA tests modified booster

 

Rocket Report: SpaceX lands in the Bahamas; ULA tests modified booster

Welcome to Edition 7.32 of the Rocket Report! It's true that the US space program has always been political. Domestic and global politics have driven nearly all of the US government's decisions on major space issues, most notably President John F. Kennedy's challenge to land astronauts on the Moon amid intense Cold War competition with the Soviet Union. The Nixon administration's decision to end the Apollo program and focus on building a reusable Space Shuttle was a political move. More than 30 years later, the Clinton administration ordered a reevaluation NASA's plans for a massive space station in low-Earth orbit. In the post-Cold War zeitgeist of the 1990s, this resulted in Russia's inclusion in the International Space Station program. Flawed or not, these decisions were backstopped with some level of reasoning, debate, and national consensus-building. Today, the politics of space seem personal, small, and mean-spirited. Thankfully, there's a lot of launch action next week that might thrust us out of the abyss, even just for a moment.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. 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 launches for the 60th time. It's safe to say Rocket Lab is an established player in the launch business. The company launched its 60th Electron rocket Tuesday from New Zealand, Space News reports. It was the second Electron launch of the year, coming just 10 days after Rocket Lab's previous mission. The payload was a new-generation small electro-optical reconnaissance satellite for BlackSky. Rocket Lab has not disclosed a projected number of Electron launches for the year beyond estimating it will be more than the 16 Electron missions in 2024. The company said on its launch webcast that the next Electron launch was planned from New Zealand in "a few short weeks."

What's coming this year? ... Rocket Lab might have more to say in its quarterly earnings report next week about its plans for 2025, but here's what we know. Rocket Lab has a long backlog of missions with its light-lift Electron rocket, deploying small fleets of commercial Earth-imaging and data relay satellites for companies like BlackSky and Kinéis. A few government missions are among Rocket Lab's more interesting launches this year, including a US military mission to demonstrate how the Space Force might respond to a threat to one of its satellites. Officially, Rocket Lab aims to debut its larger Neutron rocket this year, but I wouldn't bet on it. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Firefly nabs another win. Continuing the theme of rapid response in space, the Space Force has awarded Firefly Aerospace a nearly $22 million contract to launch a separate mission pursuing objectives similar to the one booked to fly with Rocket Lab. The mission, dubbed Victus Sol, will be the fifth Tactically Responsive Space mission for the service, Defense News reports. In a prior responsive space mission, Firefly demonstrated in 2023 that it could integrate a military satellite with its Alpha rocket and launch it within 27 hours, condensing what used to be weeks of work into a little more than a day. Clearly, this is a niche Firefly seems positioned to thrive in. Military officials view these kinds of capabilities as important for the Space Force's ability to react to real-time threats, defend against attacks, and reconstitute space-based assets disabled by an enemy in conflict.

A safari in orbit ... The Space Force's responsive space missions are managed by a military unit called Space Safari. A spokesperson for this organization told Defense News that the latest mission, Victus Sol, is "moving beyond demonstrations" and will support Space Force operations. What this means isn't clear because the spokesperson would not confirm any details about the mission, including its payload, objective, or launch date. However, fiscal 2025 budget documents say the mission could launch in late 2025 or 2026, and the service has indicated that 2026 is its target for flying operational Tactically Responsive Space missions. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

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Orbex is counting on ESA support. UK-based rocket builder Orbex has revealed that it is counting on a positive outcome from its European Launch Challenge bid to fund the development of its medium-lift rocket, Proxima, citing a "challenging investment climate," European Spaceflight reports. The European Space Agency initiated the European Launcher Challenge in November 2023 to support the development of sovereign launch capabilities and, ultimately, a successor to the Ariane 6. While the exact format of the challenge has not yet been confirmed, initial reports have indicated that it will include multiple awards of 150 million euros ($157 million) each.

Cart before the horse ... Orbex once appeared to be one of the most promising companies in a crop of European launch startups, but the gem has lost its luster. None of these startups have made an orbital launch attempt, but several of them, like Germany's Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg, have shown tangible progress. Orbex, meanwhile, has revealed little about the development of its first rocket, called Prime. Last year, Orbex announced a new, larger rocket named Proxima. This is not an unusual move. Many companies initially established with a focus on the small launch industry have transitioned to developing larger launch vehicles because that's where the money is. But Orbex hasn't launched anything. Orbex's announcement in December that it was abandoning construction of its own spaceport in favor of another launch site in Scotland also raised questions about the company's outlook.

So long, ABL. Hello, Long Wall? Former small satellite launch company ABL Space Systems has capped a transformation to focus on missile defense by changing its name, Aviation Week reports. "As our mission sharpens to focus on missile defense, we reflected on what it means for our identity," wrote Dan Piemont, CEO of the newly renamed company. "I'm proud to share that our company is now Long Wall, inspired by the Long Walls of Athens." ABL announced its pivot from satellite launch services to missile defense in November, four months after the company's second RS1 rocket was destroyed on the launch pad during ground testing. The setback followed a failed inaugural test flight in 2023.

Oversupply ... There's no question that demand is growing for missile defense and hypersonic missile technology, the two new focus areas for Long Wall. Last month, President Donald Trump announced his intention to develop a comprehensive missile defense shield for the United States. The military has been interested in hypersonic technology for decades, but the interest has transitioned in recent years from an experimental nature to an operational basis, with mixed success. Hypersonic missiles are difficult to defend against because they fly lower and are more maneuverable than ballistic missiles, so it's natural for the Pentagon to pursue defensive and offensive solutions in this area. But there are many companies retooling for the hypersonics rush. Similarly, there were numerous small launch startups in the 2010s, including ABL. It begs the question: Has ABL pivoted from one oversupplied market to another?

SpaceX's Falcon lands near the Bahamas. SpaceX notched another spaceflight record as it completed the first rocket flight that featured a liftoff in one country and a landing in another, Spaceflight Now reports. A little more than eight minutes after lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday evening, the Falcon 9 rocket booster landed on the drone ship positioned off the coast of the Exuma Islands in the Bahamas. The landing platform was located 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) from the nearest point of land, within Bahamian territorial waters. SpaceX's previous rocket landings at sea have occurred in international waters.

This new ocean ... The government of the Bahamas hailed the occasion as an opportunity for the island nation to attract visitors and investment. "With today’s historic Falcon 9 booster landing in our waters, the Bahamas has become the first international destination in the world to host a SpaceX rocket landing," said Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas. "This is not a one-time event—this is the beginning of a new chapter. Over the coming months, the Bahamas will host at least 20 scheduled rocket landings." Because the landing occurred in its territorial waters, the Bahamas had to approve SpaceX's plan to recover rockets there. In exchange for the government's approval, SpaceX will support the creation of a space exhibit in the Bahamas showcasing hardware and a SpaceX spacesuit, invest $1 million in the University of the Bahamas, and provide Starlink Internet connectivity to remote parts of the nation. The new booster landing zone in the Bahamas will allow SpaceX to launch into more types of orbits from Cape Canaveral. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

This SpaceX landing wasn't planned. Before dawn Wednesday, the sky across northern Europe was illuminated by an object zooming through the air in flames. The pyrotechnics were, in fact, caused by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket reentering the Earth's atmosphere, BBC reports. After sightings over England, Denmark, and Sweden, debris from the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket crashed into Poland. One Polish resident found what appeared to be a 1.5×1-meter pressure vessel from the upper stage behind his warehouse. No injuries were reported. Polsa, the Polish space agency, posted on X that the debris came from a Falcon 9, and independent orbital tracking data matched the rocket's location with the sightings over Europe.

Not supposed to happen ... The rocket stage that fell over Poland Wednesday launched a batch of Starlink Internet satellites from California earlier this month. Normally, SpaceX reignites the upper stage's engine for a deorbit burn after releasing the Starlink satellites, allowing the rocket to steer itself back into the atmosphere for a destructive reentry over the ocean. But something went wrong, and the burn failed to put the rocket on a trajectory toward reentry. Instead, it lingered in orbit for nearly three weeks before atmospheric drag naturally tugged it back toward Earth in an uncontrolled manner. This is the third time since last July that the Falcon 9's upper stage has encountered a problem in flight. (submitted by Dizdizzie)

India will take a measured approach toward the Moon. India will not build a large rocket for its planned crewed mission to the Moon but instead rely on multiple launches and satellite docking technology, the Times of India reports. "One option is to build a huge rocket and take a single module, but what will you do with that rocket thereafter?" said V. Narayanan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization. "Economically, we have to understand and really look at all aspects. So, we are not going to build a huge rocket. We are going to have multiple modules. Maybe right now, our thinking is two modules. You take them separately and dock."

Buoyed by success ... Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has charged the Indian space agency to fly an astronaut to the Moon by 2040. Engineers are only now outlining the architecture for how India might achieve this goal. On January 16, India achieved its first successful docking between two satellites in orbit. This made India the fourth nation, after the United States, Russia, and China, to demonstrate an independent docking capability in orbit.

A new vehicle joins China's rocket fleet. China conducted the first launch of the Long March 8A rocket on February 11, carrying a second batch of satellites into orbit for the national Guowang project, Space News reports. The launcher took off from the Wenchang launch base in southern China and deployed at least eight satellites for the Guowang broadband megaconstellation, China's answer to Starlink. China has published scant information about the design, size, or capabilities of the Guowang satellites, raising questions about the nature of the satellites and concerns about transparency.

Only kinda new ... The Long March 8A is an upgraded variant of the standard Long March 8, which debuted in December 2020. It features the same first stage and side boosters as the original but includes a newly designed 3.35-meter-diameter (11-foot) hydrogen-oxygen second stage, allowing a wider, 5.2-meter-diameter (17-foot) payload fairing. The rocket can carry about 7,000 kilograms (15,400 pounds) into Sun-synchronous orbit. China plans to use the expendable Long March 8 and 8A rockets for numerous launches. They will likely become workhorses for deploying China's Guowang and Thousand Sails megaconstellations. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Here's the latest on Starship Flight 8. A little over a month after SpaceX's large Starship launch ended in an explosion over several Caribbean islands, the company is preparing its next rocket for a test flight, Ars reports. According to a notice posted by the Federal Aviation Administration, the eighth test flight of the Starship vehicle could take place as early as February 26 from the Starbase launch site in South Texas. Company sources confirmed that this launch date is plausible, but it's also possible that the launch could slip a day or two to Thursday or Friday of next week.

Flight 7, Take 2 … This is an important flight for SpaceX to get the Starship program back on track. On the previous Starship test flight last month, the rocket's upper stage failed about eight minutes after launch, raining debris over the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Atlantic Ocean. The FAA is overseeing a SpaceX-led investigation into the accident, and while the inquiry is not yet complete, the posting indicating a launch date next week suggests government officials believe the investigation is nearing its end. Flight 8 will likely attempt the same goals as Flight 7 would have achieved, such as testing Starship's payload deployment mechanism and gathering data on novel heat shield materials.

Full stack for SLS SRBs. Engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida completed stacking the Space Launch System's twin Solid Rocket Boosters inside the Vehicle Assembly Building for the agency's Artemis II crewed test flight around the Moon, NASA reported this week. The boosters, each standing 177 feet (54 meters) tall, will provide the majority of the 8.8 million pounds of thrust to propel four astronauts inside the Orion spacecraft on their journey. The next step will be the placement of the SLS core stage in between the boosters in the coming weeks.

For what? … The long-term (and perhaps short-term) future of NASA's Space Launch System rocket is dubious. For now, NASA continues to make preparations for launching the Artemis II mission next year using the SLS rocket. But there's a push from Trump administration officials and advisers to cancel the rocket, which has cost somewhere around $29 billion since the program was announced in 2011. Each SLS rocket is fully expendable, and the rocket alone will cost up to $2.5 billion per flight, according to a 2023 audit by NASA's inspector general. This is, quite simply, unsustainable. There are alternatives. However, if the White House wants to put Americans around the Moon within the next few years—approximately the same time horizon as Trump's presidential term—keeping the Space Launch System around for a limited time might be the only way to do it.

Vulcan booster test-fired in Utah. Northrop Grumman test-fired a solid rocket booster for United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket last Thursday, February 13, in remote northern Utah, NASASpaceflight reports. Tory Bruno, ULA's CEO, posted a photo of himself posing with the booster alongside Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of the Space Force's Space Systems Command. This was an important milestone in the investigation into why the nozzle from one of the strap-on boosters on ULA's second Vulcan rocket broke free shortly after liftoff in October. The rocket continued climbing into space, and the flight reached a successful conclusion, but the anomaly put the brakes on the Space Force's certification of Vulcan for national security missions.

Modified motor … A ULA spokesperson told NSF that investigators are reviewing data from the "static hot fire of a modified GEM 63XL booster in Utah on February 13. This test was part of the process for understanding the root cause of the observation on a Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) during the Vulcan Cert-2 mission and we will provide additional details as we have them." Officials haven't disclosed the root cause of the booster anomaly in October, or what fixes are required on boosters already built and in ULA's inventory. (submitted by EllPeaTea)