SPACE reports, “A European mission that will use two satellites to create artificial eclipses in Earth orbit will launch early Thursday morning (Dec. 5) … The ESA’s Proba-3 formation-flying mission is scheduled to lift off atop an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Satish Dhawan Space Center on Thursday at 5:42 a.m. EST (1042 GMT; 4:42 p.m. local time in India).”
Full Story (SPACE)
Tag: rocket
Proba-3 Mission Set to Create ‘Solar Eclipses on Demand’
The Washington Post reports, “A space-exploration organization solved a technological feat more than a decade in the making — launching a pair of satellites capable of creating artificial solar eclipses. It is considered a breakthrough development in solar physics, according to scientists and the European Space Agency, which oversaw the Proba-3 mission and its launch last Thursday in India. Through a precise flying formation, the satellites will create a six-hour window for scientists to research the sun’s outer atmosphere — an opportunity previously restricted.”
Full Story (Washington Post)
ULA Preparing New Vulcan Centaur Rocket for 1st Space Force Mission
SPACE reports United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is set for its first U.S. Space Force mission, promising cost-effective launches and advanced technology. “In late 2024 or early 2025, United Launch Alliance (ULA)’s Vulcan Centaur rocket will fly its first of more than two dozen U.S. Space Force missions allocated under a national security space launch contract.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Report: Space Investment Bounced Back in 2023, Increased M&A Expected into 2024
CNBC reports that investment in the space sector “bounced back last year, rebounding closer to the record high of 2021, according to a report Tuesday by New York-based Space Capital.” The firm’s fourth-quarter report “found that space infrastructure companies brought in $2.6 billion of private investment during the period. That brought the sector to $12.5 billion in total investment for 2023, well above last year’s $9.3 billion raised but still below the $15.3 billion brought in during 2021.” Top raises during the “fourth quarter included funds announced by space companies Firefly Aerospace, Ursa Major, D-Orbit, Stoke Space and True Anomaly.” Anderson told the outlet “we expect to see even more” merger and acquisition activity in 2024.
Full Story (CNBC)
SpaceX Eyes February for Third Starship Test Flight
Space News reports, “SpaceX expects to conduct the third integrated test flight of its Starship vehicle in February as it works to demonstrate key technologies needed to land humans on the moon.” On Tuesday, “Jessica Jensen, vice president of customer operations and integration at SpaceX, said securing an updated Federal Aviation Administration launch license was the key factor driving the schedule for that test flight.” She said, “From a hardware readiness perspective, we are targeting to be ready in January.”
Full Story (Space News)
ULA’s Vulcan Centaur Rocket Set to Launch on January 8
Gizmodo reports United Launch Alliance’s “202-foot-tall (61.6-meter) Vulcan Centaur rocket is set to launch from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral” on Monday, January 8. According to Gizmodo, this is a “huge deal, as it marks the debut of ULA’s first new rocket design in 18 years. While the (mostly) expendable Vulcan Centaur may not be revolutionary from a technological perspective, it represents a significant evolutionary step for ULA.”
Full Story (Gizmodo)
ULA Vulcan Centaur Rocket’s Maiden Launch Delayed to January
SPACE reports that the premiere “of the Space Coast’s newest launch vehicle, carrying a moon lander aiming for the first commercial touchdown, will likely slip to the beginning of 2024.” United Launch Alliance (ULA) “performed a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) of the company’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket over the weekend, which includes loading propellant into the spacecraft and running through launch-day procedures up to the moments before engine ignition.” However, the test did not go to plan. A social media post from ULA CEO Tory Bruno Sunday indicated the test “ran the timeline long so we didn’t quite finish.” Vulcan’s first launch, “which includes the rocket’s Centaur second stage, was scheduled for Dec. 24 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in coastal Florida.” But the incomplete WDR “means that window is likely out.” The next window “opens Jan. 8, and will last four days, the CEO clarified in a follow-up post.” Each of those opportunities “include an instantaneous launch window to accommodate the mission’s main payload: Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, headed for the moon.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Japan’s flagship H3 Rocket Successfully Reaches Orbit
CBS News reports “Japan’s flagship H3 rocket reached orbit and released two small observation satellites in a key second test following a failed debut launch last year, buoying hope for the country in the global space race. The report adds that “the launch is a boost for Japan’s space program following a recent streak of successes, including a historic precision touchdown on the moon of an unmanned spacecraft last month.”
Full Story (CBS News)
Video
Japan Successfully Launches H3 Rocket, 17 February 2024
(Firstpost; YouTube)
Rocket Lab’s Electron Rocket Launches on Space Debris Removal Mission
Spaceflight Now reports “a small satellite that will inspect a discarded rocket body in orbit lifted off Sunday/Monday on a mission to develop techniques for removing space debris.” Built by Japan-based Astroscale, the satellite “launched atop a Rocket Lab Electron” rocket from New Zealand at 9:52 a.m. EST
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
Video
Rocket Lab – Electron Launch, 18 February 2024
(Space Affairs; YouTube)
Mishap Causes SpaceX to Reexamine Starship’s Upper Stage
Aviation Week reports SpaceX’s “effort to demonstrate payload deployment, land its upper stage and potentially achieve spaceship-to-spaceship fuel transfer this year had an inauspicious start when the Starship system suffered a setback during the Jan. 16 flight. Minutes after launch, the Block 2 upper stage broke up when a fire developed in the aft section.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Video
A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded shortly after launching on its seventh test flight.
(Brut India; YouTube)
Russian Space Officials Abort Planned Test Launch of New Heavy-lift Rocket
The Associated Press reports that a Russian Angara-A5 rocket was set to launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome at 5:00 AM ET Tuesday, but the launch was scrubbed just two minutes before liftoff. “Yuri Borisov, head of Roscosmos state space corporation, said the automatic safety system canceled the launch after registering a flaw in the oxidizer tank pressurization system.”
Full Story (Associated Press)
DoD Innovation Unit to Study Firefly Vehicle for Missions Beyond Earth Orbit
Space News reports, “The Defense Innovation Unit announced March 21 it has signed an agreement with Firefly Aerospace to study the potential use of the company’s Elytra orbital vehicle for missions beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit.” According to the article, once the study contract is complete, as many as two demonstration flights could occur, “in the region between GEO orbit and the moon, known as cislunar space.”
Full Story (Space News)
SpaceX’s Starship Rocket Receives FAA Go-Ahead for Launch
Reuters reports the FAA “on Tuesday said it issued a license for SpaceX’s fourth flight of its Starship rocket system, another test mission along the company’s path to building a reusable satellite launcher and moon lander. SpaceX is aiming to launch its nearly 400-foot-tall (122-meter), two-stage Starship as early as Thursday at 7 a.m. CDT (1200 GMT) from its rocket facilities in south Texas, from which past flights in the company’s test-to-failure development campaign have launched.”
Full Story (Reuters)
SpaceX Starship Fueled Up Ahead of 4th Test Flight
SPACE reports, “SpaceX just fueled up its giant Starship rocket, checking another box ahead of the vehicle’s fourth test flight. The company performed a ‘wet dress rehearsal’ with Starship at its Starbase site in South Texas today (May 20), filling both of the vehicle’s stages with supercold liquid oxygen and liquid methane in a key prelaunch test.”
Full Story (SPACE)
NASA Conducts First in Series of Ground-Test Firings to Certify Upgraded RS-25 Engine
Aviation Week reports that “NASA has conducted the first in a planned series of 12 ground-test firings to certify the upgraded Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engine for the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.”
Full Story (Aviation Week – Subscription publication)
Firefly Ready to Test Launch USSF On-Demand Service
Aviation Week reports that sometime in the next six months, Boeing’s Millennium Space Systems and startup Firefly Aerospace “will receive a call from the U.S. Space Force to integrate and launch a satellite in 24 hr.” Until then, the companies “will stand at the ready for the military’s Victus Nox mission.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
ULA Cancels Planned Static Hot Fire of Vulcan-Centaur Rocket
Aviation Week reports that on May 25, United Launch Alliance announced that it has “canceled the planned…static hot fire of its first Vulcan-Centaur rocket to review an issue with the booster engine ignition system.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Vulcan Rolled Out to Launchpad for Final Series of Tests Ahead of its Debut Launch
Aviation Week (5/11) reports that a “United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan-Centaur rocket was rolled out to its launchpad on May 11 for a final series of tests ahead of its debut launch, targeted for this summer.” Space News reports ULA said on Thursday that the “Vulcan is in position atop SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to undergo a full launch day rehearsal tomorrow and flight readiness firing test of its main engines planned for next week.” ULA CEO Tory Bruno tweeted on Wednesday that the “Vulcan was returning to tanking tests although the investigation of a Centaur upper-stage testing anomaly that occurred on March 29 has not yet been completed.” Bruno said that “ULA plans to livestream the flight-readiness test firing of the BE-4 main engines. The test fire is expected to last about six seconds, he said. ‘A short burn, but a very long time to be on the pad.’”
Full Story (Aviation Week); More Info (Space News)
NRO Contracts Firefly, Xtenti for Responsive Space Mission
Aviation Week reports Firefly Aerospace is “parlaying technology” developed for its “Alpha launch vehicle and Blue Ghost lunar lander with expertise acquired through its purchase of Spaceflight into a new business line focused on in-space services, with the National Reconnaissance Office.” Space News reports that on Tuesday, NRO “announced a contract with Firefly Aerospace and Xtenti for a responsive space mission.” The NRO mission is “scheduled to launch on a Firefly Alpha launch vehicle in 2024,” and will “demonstrate multiple on-orbit deployments with Firefly’s Elytra orbital vehicle and Xtenti’s Fantm-Ride small satellite dispenser.” Elytra will “deploy commercial rideshare payloads with Fantm-Ride, before performing an on-orbit maneuver.” After the maneuver, Elytra “will remain in orbit on standby, prepared to deploy U.S. government payloads on-demand.”
Full Story (Aviation Week); More Info (Space News)
ULA Prepares for First Vulcan Centaur Launch
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports that United Launch Alliance “has its missing rocket piece in hand at Cape Canaveral and all systems are go for a Christmas Eve launch to mark the debut of its Vulcan Centaur rocket.” A new Centaur upper stage “arrived by barge to the Space Coast on Monday, a replacement for the stage ULA originally planned to fly on the Certification-1 mission this past May.” That initial flight, “already delayed for nearly two years, was again put on hold after an issue with a test version of the Centaur stage was destroyed amid a massive fireball in the spring, requiring design changes to ensure a repeat didn’t happen during actual liftoff.” ULA has been anxious “to get this debut launch off the ground with its primary payload of Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lunar lander, part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions.” The lander “traveled from Astrobotic’s headquarters in Pittsburgh arriving to the Space Coast on Oct. 31.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)