Welcome to Edition 5.43 of the Rocket Report! I’m thrilled to announce that Stephen Clark is joining Ars Technica to cover space alongside me. You’ve got already read a few of his advantageous work here within the Rocket Report, as he has been the long-time editor of Spaceflight Now. But now, starting Monday, he’ll be writing regularly for Ars and periodically authoring the Rocket Report. Accordingly, after next week, there’ll now not be any breaks in this article aside from the year-end holidays.
As all the time, we welcome reader submissions, and when you don’t need to miss a difficulty, 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 Star moves from LauncherOne to Electron. Canada’s NorthStar Earth and Space has signed a multi-launch cope with Rocket Lab after Virgin Orbit’s bankruptcy scotched plans to deploy its space situational awareness satellites this summer, Space News reports. Rocket Lab will launch the enterprise’s first 4 satellites this fall on an Electron rocket, NorthStar said this week. Spire Global is providing the satellites, each the scale of 16 CubeSats.
… NorthStar had planned to launch three satellites in its initial batch with Virgin Orbit before the air-launch company fell out of business in April. Using larger capability on Electron to deploy more satellites to low-Earth orbit gives its SSA system greater coverage from the outset for early adopters, said NorthStar Chief Operating Officer David Saint-Germain. “We were in a position to change a negative right into a positive,” Saint-Germain said. It’s interesting to listen to that Electron had a bigger capability, as LauncherOne was advertised as having a capability of 500 kg to low-Earth orbit, in comparison with 300 kg for Electron. Another excuse for Virgin Orbit’s troubles, little question. (submitted by Ken the Bin and Joey SIV-B)
Rocket Lab completes hypersonic flight. The launch company said this weekend that it successfully launched its first suborbital testbed launch vehicle, called HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron), for a confidential customer (i.e., almost definitely the US military). The inaugural launch occurred on June 17 from Launch Complex 2 at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport inside NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
… Based on Rocket Lab, the HASTE suborbital launch vehicle is derived from the Electron rocket but has a modified kick stage for hypersonic payload deployment, a bigger payload capability of as much as 700 kg, and options for tailored fairings to accommodate larger payloads, including air-breathing, ballistic re-entry, boost-glide, and space-based applications payloads. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
RFA to launch from French Guiana. German company Rocket Factory Augsburg announced this week that it signed a binding term sheet with the French space agency CNES to supply its launch services from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana. The corporate plans to begin flying the RFA One rocket from the ELM-Diamant complex as its second launch site starting in 2025. Previously, RFA has said its debut launch will happen on the SaxaVord spaceport within the northern United Kingdom.
… “By securing a launch site on the Diamant launch complex, this agreement allows RFA to supply GTO, MEO, GEO, and even lunar and interplanetary flight profiles to its customers,” said Jörn Spurmann, chief industrial officer at RFA, in a news release. RFA is one in all several launch firms competing within the industrial rocket industry in Europe. None of those firms has launched an orbital test flight, nonetheless. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)