![SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center carrying the Jupiter-3 mission.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/FH1-800x533.jpg)
SpaceX
Welcome to Edition 6.05 of the Rocket Report! This week’s newsletter has the excellence of including not one, but two items of reports from Australia. Unfortunately, one in every of the items suggests rough waters lie ahead for the country’s young industrial space industry.
As all the time, we welcome reader submissions, and for those who don’t desire to miss a problem, please subscribe using the box below (the shape is not going to 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 subsequent three launches on the calendar.
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Australian industry faces cuts. In June the Australian government cut a $1.2 billion Earth science program, and the cut has been reverberating through the country’s nascent industrial space industry since then, the Australian Broadcast Corporation reports. “That is an industry-wide hit,” Bec Shrimpton, the director of Defense Strategy and National Security on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told the publication. “The arrogance has gone out of the sector, which suggests that across the board corporations usually are not attracting investment. The flexibility to draw major money here is gone for numerous corporations.”
… Gilmour Space is one of the vital outstanding Australian space startups, and its founder, Adam Gilmour, noted that space industries in other countries relied on government support to get off the bottom. He called on the federal government in Australia to do the identical. “If you happen to go searching the remaining of the world, the federal government is all the time, in a successful space economy, an early customer,” he said. “They’ll give the space industry the primary deals, they’ll sort of cleared the path… after which the industry can springboard on top of that.” (submitted by Marzipan)
iRocket to work with Air Force. Progressive Rocket Technologies, often known as iRocket, has signed an agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory to jointly develop and test rocket propulsion hardware, Space News reports. The Recent York-based startup, founded in 2018, develops rocket engines and plans to construct a small launch vehicle. iRocket has now signed a four-year cooperative research and development agreement with the Air Force’s Rocket Propulsion Division.
… iRocket said in June that it won a US Space Force contract to show a reusable rocket engine for small launch vehicles. Under the brand new agreement, the corporate plans to conduct propulsion, stage, and potentially grasshopper testing at Test Site 1-56 on the High Thrust Research Facility, positioned at Edwards Air Force Base, California. This facility is one in every of only 4 stands in america able to withstanding 10 million kilos of thrust. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Virgin Galactic sees limited revenues. Whilst Virgin Galactic enters regular industrial operations of its suborbital spaceplane, it said those flights will generate only modest revenues for the near future, Space News reports. On Tuesday the corporate reported revenue of $2 million within the second quarter of 2023, saying it got here from its first industrial SpaceShipTwo mission, “Galactic 01,” on June 29, in addition to membership fees from its private astronaut customers. The vehicle’s next mission, Galactic 02, is scheduled for August 10 from Spaceport America in Recent Mexico.
… While the corporate played up the importance of Galactic 02, it’s downplaying the revenue that and future flights will generate for Virgin Galactic. The corporate is forecasting just $1 million in revenue in each of the subsequent two quarters. A part of the explanation for that, chief executive Michael Colglazier said, is that about three-fourths of the 800 tickets sold to date were at prices of between $200,000 and $250,000 each. The corporate later raised prices to $450,000 each. As well as, while Unity’s cabin can accommodate 4 people, the corporate plans to fly only three paying customers on each flight initially, using the fourth seat for an astronaut trainer.
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Latest Antares reaches the top of the road. A industrial Antares rocket owned by the US aerospace and defense contractor Northrop Grumman launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, on Tuesday, hauling an automatic Cygnus supply ship into orbit on a mission to the International Space Station. The Antares rocket was powered by two Russian-made engines affixed to the underside of a first-stage booster inbuilt Ukraine. This was the ultimate launch of the Antares 230+ rocket, Ars reports.
… A few yr ago, months after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict erupted right into a hot war, Northrop Grumman announced it might design and develop an all-American Antares rocket with Firefly that may very well be able to fly by the top of 2024. The corporate calls the version of the Antares rocket retired with this week’s launch the Antares 230+, while the brand new variant with Firefly’s booster stage might be named the Antares 330. Kurt Eberly, Northrop Grumman’s director of space launch programs, said Sunday that the Antares 330 rocket is now expected to launch no ahead of mid-2025. Until then, Northrop has purchased three Falcon 9 launches with SpaceX to proceed flying Cygnus cargo ships to the space station at a rate of about twice per yr.
Ariane 6 rocket development continues within the shadows. Last month, a full-scale model of Europe’s Ariane 6 was put to the test on its launch pad within the jungles of French Guiana, Ars reports. For the primary time, the launch team on the tropical spaceport loaded cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the Ariane 6 over the course of a marathon 26-hour test campaign. But it surely took every week for the European Space Agency, which is funding the three.8 billion euro ($4.1 billion) development of Ariane 6, to release an update on the test, which was not entirely successful.
… The space agency is working toward an extended Vulcain 2.1 engine firing that might last as long as 500 seconds, approximating the duration of a predominant engine burn during launch. An area agency spokesperson said ESA just isn’t planning to supply live video of the long-duration Ariane 6 test-firing in French Guiana. That is disappointing and can be a missed opportunity for ESA to have interaction with the taxpayers footing the bill for this recent rocket. ESA’s decision to not broadcast live video of the Ariane 6 hold-down test-firing contrasts with NASA, which provided live coverage of two hot-fire tests for its Space Launch System rocket in 2021. Just like the Ariane 6, NASA’s SLS Moon rocket is a publicly funded enterprise.
Where is the Amur rocket Russia promised? It has been nearly three years since Roscosmos unveiled plans to develop the “Amur” rocket, which had the goal of flying a totally reusable first stage. The methane-fueled rocket, as Ars reported on the time, looked quite a bit like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, complete with grid fins and landing legs. Back then, within the yr 2020, Roscosmos said the country aspired to begin flying Amur in 2026. In response to the article, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said, “It’s a step in the precise direction, but they need to really aim for full reusability by 2026. Larger rocket would also make sense for literal economies of scale. Goal needs to be to attenuate cost per useful ton to orbit or it’s going to at best serve a distinct segment market.”
… So after nearly three years, where are we now? “We’re currently 2028-2030,” said Deputy General Director Daniil Subbotin of RCC Progress, a Roscosmos company, in response to a matter in regards to the Amur vehicle recently. He was quoted by the Russian news agency TASS, in a report translated for Ars by Rob Mitchell. Subbotin said that immediately the technical planning for the vehicle is ongoing, to be followed by development and flight testing. The possibilities of Amur flying in my lifetime, I might say, are probably lower than 10 percent.
Sierra Space working on upper stage engine. The corporate previously often known as Sierra Nevada Corporation has won an Air Force contract to proceed development of an engine that may very well be utilized in the upper stage of future launch vehicles, Space News reports. The $22.6 million contract from the Air Force Test Center might be used to mature the design of its VR35K-A engine.
… The engine, using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, is designed to supply 35,000 pounds-force of thrust. “Compared with other upper-stage engines currently available on the market, the VR35K-A provides more thrust and better performance in a smaller package,” said Rusty Thomas, Sierra Space’s chief technology officer. Sierra Space has not disclosed any customers for the VR35K-A engine. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Australia confirms object as Indian rocket. In July, a big object that gave the impression to be a part of a rocket washed up on a beach near Jurien Bay in Western Australia. The origins of the thing were uncertain until the Australian Space Agency confirmed this week that it’s an expended third stage of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, a medium-lift vehicle operated by the Indian space agency, ISRO.
… After identifying the thing, the space agency added, “The Australian Space Agency is committed to the long-term sustainability of outer space activities, including debris mitigation, and continues to focus on this on the international stage.” The debris stays in storage, and the Australian Space Agency is working with ISRO to find out next steps. (submitted by Marzipan)
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Aerojet sale to L3Harris is finalized. Aerojet Rocketdyne is now officially a subsidiary of L3Harris, marking the top to one in every of the more dramatic defense acquisition stories of the last decade, Breaking Defense reports. Previously, Lockheed Martin had sought to purchase Aerojet. But after federal regulators sued to dam the deal, the aerospace giant abandoned it last yr.
… The scuttling of that deal set off internal shockwaves at Aerojet, which saw an unusually public spat amongst its board. When the dust finally cleared, L3Harris was in prime position to make a move, announcing in December that it might acquire the rocket motor company for $4.7 billion. Aerojet makes solid rocket motors for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket and for NASA’s Space Launch System. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Falcon Heavy flies again. The heaviest industrial communications satellite ever built lifted off on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Friday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This Jupiter-3 satellite, owned by EchoStar and built by Maxar, tipped the scales at about 9.2 metric tons. The Falcon Heavy propelled the spacecraft on its way toward an operating position in geostationary orbit nearly 36,000 kilometers over the equator.
… SpaceX scrubbed the launch attempt Wednesday night with a few minute left within the countdown as a consequence of a stuck valve on one in every of the Falcon Heavy’s first-stage boosters. Teams in Florida swapped out the valve but decided to forego a launch opportunity Thursday night and goal Friday night for the subsequent launch attempt. This was SpaceX’s seventh Falcon Heavy launch and the third of 5 planned this yr. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Next three launches
August 6: Electron | We Love the Nightlife | Māhia Peninsula, Recent Zealand | 05:00 UTC
August 7: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-8 | Cape Canaveral, Florida | 00:22 UTC
August 7: Soyuz 2.1 | Glonass-K2 | Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia | 14:10 UTC
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