Welcome to Edition 6.20 of the Rocket Report! We apologize for missing last week, but each Stephen and I were in transit to South Texas for the Starship launch. To make up for it this week’s report is extra long, and a day early attributable to the Thanksgiving holiday in the USA. But that doesn’t suggest the spaceflight motion stops, with an eagerly awaited hot fire test of the Ariane 6 rocket expected Thursday. See below for details on find out how to watch live.
As all the time, we welcome reader submissions, and in the event you don’t desire to miss a problem, please subscribe using the box below (the shape won’t appear on AMP-enabled versions of the positioning). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets in addition to a fast look ahead at the following three launches on the calendar.
North Korea launches spy satellite. North Korea’s launch of a small, solid-fueled Chŏllima-1 rocket, which has a capability of about 300 kg to low-Earth orbit, appears to have been successful, Reuters reports. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist on the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the US Space Force data had cataloged two recent objects in an orbital plane consistent with the launch from North Korea on the time stated by Pyongyang.
… “I conclude the objects are the spy satellite and the rocket upper stage,” McDowell told the news service. What stays unconfirmed, nevertheless, is whether or not its payload, the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1, is working and whether the North received any outside help. South Korea’s spy agency has said North Korea could have overcome technical hurdles with the assistance of Russia, which in September publicly pledged to assist Pyongyang construct satellites. (submitted by EllPeaTea, Ken the Bin, and tsunam)
Firefly raises significant funding. It’s definitely not the perfect of times for an area company to boost money, but Firefly appears to be having success regardless. The company recently announced that it has raised about $300 million since February 2023, valuing the corporate at $1.5 billion. “Now we have been successful at raising funds at an increased valuation on this difficult capital markets environment attributable to our concentrate on production and mission execution,” said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace.
… Together with Firefly’s recent responsive launch success with the VICTUS NOX mission, the corporate said it has been awarded contracts for multiple Alpha rocket missions, including a NASA flight, and launch agreements with Lockheed Martin and L3Harris. The corporate also won multiple US government and industrial contracts, including three NASA Industrial Lunar Payload Services task orders, with its Blue Ghost lander. Firefly can also be developing a medium-lift rocket with Northrop Grumman. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Rocket Lab targets November return to flight. Rocket Lab expects to resume Electron launches in late November after concluding that a “largely improbable” combination of events caused the vehicle’s previous launch to fail, Space News reports. The corporate is targeting a return to flight of Electron no sooner than November 28 from the corporate’s Launch Complex 1 in Recent Zealand. The rocket will carry a radar imaging satellite for the Japanese company iQPS on a dedicated mission.
… Electron has been grounded since a September 19 launch failure, when the second-stage engine appeared to shut down moments after ignition. The corporate has already received authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration to resume launches. In an earnings call to debate the corporate’s third-quarter financial results, Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck said the failure happened quickly, with just one.6 seconds of knowledge from the primary indication of an issue with the vehicle to the lack of telemetry. “This was all the time going to be a highly complex issue to work out,” he said. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Ursa Major to focus on solid rocket motor market. CEO Joe Laurienti said the corporate sees a possibility to make use of 3D printing to disrupt an industry constrained by outdated processes, Space News reports. The production of solid rocket motors in the USA is “stricken by a broken supply chain and an overextended industrial base,” Laurienti said. “Most people weren’t really being attentive to the economic base around this until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
… While large solid rocket motors are employed by big launch vehicles akin to NASA’s Space Launch System and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan, they’re most generally utilized in military weapon systems like missiles and rockets. Northrop Grumman and L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne are the nation’s primary suppliers of solid rocket motors. The conflict in Ukraine has exposed cracks within the US industrial base, which has struggled to fulfill surging demand for critical munitions just like the Javelin and Stinger missile systems that rely upon solid rocket motors. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
SaxaVord owes contractors money. A spaceport being built on the Shetland Islands north of the Scottish mainland is having financial difficulties, European Spaceflight reports. Shetland Space Centre Limited owes roughly 1 million kilos to Shetland-based DITT Construction for the event of the spaceport. The corporate currently doesn’t have the funds to pay the quantity after a £139 million debt facility promised by CEO Frank Strang in May didn’t materialize. The development of SaxaVord Spaceport began in late March 2022. At its peak, greater than 60 people were working on site to construct out key infrastructure that might enable the ability to support launches of small rockets from Scottish shores.
… In January 2023, Germany’s Rocket Factory Augsburg announced that it had secured exclusive rights to the one launch pad that had been accomplished. With testing of the RFA ONE core stage expected to start at the positioning in early 2024, this appears to be one among the weather of SaxaVord that has been accomplished on schedule. In possibly related news, one other German launch startup, HyImpulse Technologies, said it might make the debut flight of its suborbital SR75 launch vehicle from the Southern Launch Koonibba Test Range in Australia as a substitute of the previously announced SaxaVord. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)
Spanish startup makes progress on methalox engine. Barcelona-based Pangea Aerospace recently announced a successful test of the combustion chamber for its ARCOS aerospike engine. “We were also capable of validate the advanced manufacturing techniques and materials used, which represent breakthrough technologies for the aerospace industry,” the corporate stated. Pangea says that is the primary aerospike engine developed using liquid methane as a propellant.
… The ARCOS engine is designed to have a thrust of 300 kN, or about one-third that of a Merlin 1D rocket engine. It is meant to fly on each the primary stage and upper stage of a reusable launch vehicle. The corporate’s technology just isn’t on the maturity level of Stoke Space, however it does seem like the primary Europe-based startup attempting to construct a totally reusable rocket. (submitted by Leika)