Rocket Report: ABL loses its second booster; Falcon 9 cleared for return to flight

Welcome to Edition 7.04 of the Rocket Report! Probably the most striking news this week came from ABL, which said in a terse social media statement that it had lost its second RS1 rocket during pre-flight testing. This is unfortunate, since the company had been so careful and meticulous in working toward this second launch attempt. It's a reminder of how demanding this industry remains.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and 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.

ABL loses rocket after static fire test. ABL Space Systems said Monday that its next rocket had suffered "irrecoverable" damage during preparations for launch. "After a pre-flight static fire test on Friday, a residual pad fire caused irrecoverable damage to RS1," the company said on the social media site X. "The team is investigating root cause and will provide updates as the investigation progresses." As of the writing of this report three days later, the company has not posted any additional information.

Not particularly promising ... This is a serious setback for the launch company, which attempted the debut flight of its RS1 vehicle 18 months ago and had been preparing for this second attempt for a long time. The California-based company had been keeping a low profile and had not made a social media posting since May. The RS1 vehicle is advertised as having a lift capacity of 1.35 metric tons at a price of $12 million. During ABL's initial launch attempt in January 2023, an anomaly in the rocket caused all nine of the RS1's first-stage engines to shut down. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Point-to-point company test-fires engine. A space transportation startup with visions of high-speed point-to-point travel has started tests of the engine that will power their vehicle, Space News reports. Frontier Aerospace test-fired its Mjölnir engine on July 18, its chairman, Alex Tai, said during a panel discussion at the Farnborough International Airshow. Mjölnir is a full-flow staged combustion engine. The firing lasted less than a second but demonstrated the startup of the turbopumps and successful ignition.

Starting with a smaller version ... The company plans to do longer engine burns as part of the testing program. The version of Mjölnir currently being tested produces less than 3,000 pounds-force of thrust. New Frontier plans to use a much more powerful version of the engine on a vehicle called the Intercontinental Rocketliner, a suborbital vehicle intended to carry 100 people on high-speed flights around the planet at hypersonic speeds. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Ursa Major invests in Ohio. Ursa Major will buy several industrial 3D printers and hire 15 new employees for a research and development center in Youngstown, Ohio, focused on additive manufacturing, Payload reports. The Colorado-based rocket engine maker will contribute $10.5 million in capital investment alongside a $4 million grant from JobsOhio, a privately funded economic development nonprofit. The expansion of a small existing facility will enable the company to step up its development of solid rocket motors—a top priority for the Department of Defense.

The war needs what it needs ... In April, Ursa won a contract of undisclosed value from the Navy to develop a lower-cost manufacturing approach for the standardized solid rocket motors used across a range of missiles. The US supply chains for those motors—mainly provided by Northrop Grumman and L3Harris—have been stressed by US support for Ukraine’s defense against Russian invaders. In November, Ursa raised $138 million to support its push into solid rocket motor manufacturing in a round that reportedly valued the company at $750 million.

Scottish spaceport expecting final license. Scott Hammond, deputy chief executive and operations director of SaxaVord Spaceport, said he expected the spaceport to receive the last of the licenses it needs from UK regulators in September, Space News reports. Located in the Shetland Islands, the spaceport could host the debut launch of Rocket Factory Augsburg’s RFA ONE rocket later this year.

It's all coming together ... The company performed a static-fire test at the site in May, firing four of nine engines in the vehicle’s first stage. Hammond said the company was preparing for similar tests that will fire five, and then all nine, engines in the stage. The second stage for that inaugural launch is scheduled to arrive this week after tests in Kiruna, Sweden, followed by its third stage and the satellite payloads. A launch this year is possible, but don't be shocked if it slips into 2025. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Falcon 9 rocket is back. Less than two weeks after SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket experienced an upper stage failure, the company is preparing a return to flight this weekend. In a statement posted Thursday evening, SpaceX explained the anomaly: "During the first burn of Falcon 9’s second stage engine, a liquid oxygen leak developed within the insulation around the upper stage engine. The cause of the leak was identified as a crack in a sense line for a pressure sensor attached to the vehicle’s oxygen system. This line cracked due to fatigue caused by high loading from engine vibration and looseness in the clamp that normally constrains the line."

FAA says fly away ... The problem has been addressed following a rapid investigation by the company and Federal Aviation Administration. "For near term Falcon launches, the failed sense line and sensor on the second stage engine will be removed," the company said. "The sensor is not used by the flight safety system and can be covered by alternate sensors already present on the engine. The design change has been tested at SpaceX’s rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas, with enhanced qualification analysis and oversight by the FAA." The earliest possible launch date for the return-to-flight Starlink mission is early Saturday morning. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

How vibrant is the commercial space sector, really? There is an emerging truth about NASA's push toward commercial contracts that is increasingly difficult to escape: Companies not named SpaceX are struggling with NASA's approach of awarding firm, fixed-price contracts for space services. In a lengthy report, Ars explains that this is underscored by the recent award of an $843 million contract to SpaceX for a heavily modified Dragon spacecraft that will be used to deorbit the International Space Station by 2030.

This applies to launch as well as other services ... The agency would like to move toward an era of commercial space, in which the agency shares development costs with the private industry and benefits from the ideas and nimble development practices of entrepreneurs. Everyone wins. However, the space agency has encountered serious turbulence in this endeavor. For some time, the agency has been hoping that other new space companies would step up and similarly thrive like SpaceX in an environment of purely fixed-price contracts. To succeed over the coming decade in low-Earth orbit and on the Moon, the agency is counting on a new generation of companies, such as Axiom Space and Intuitive Machines, to take this next step. But what happens if they don't?

NASA selects SpaceX for polar mission. The space agency said this week it had selected SpaceX to provide launch services for NOAA’s JPSS-4 mission on board a Falcon 9 rocket. The spacecraft is part of the multi-satellite cooperative Joint Polar Satellite System program, a partnership between NASA and NOAA. This is a firm fixed-price contract with a value of approximately $112.7 million, which includes launch services and other mission-related costs.

It's not like this was a heated competition ... The JPSS-4 mission is currently targeted to launch in 2027 from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It's always nice to win a contract, but in this case there are currently no other launch vehicles available to NASA to fulfill this class of mission. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Pieces of Artemis II start to arrive on the chess board. The core stage of NASA's second Space Launch System rocket arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week, Ars reports. Agency officials intend to start stacking the towering launcher in the next couple of months for a mission late next year carrying a team of four astronauts around the Moon. The Artemis II mission, officially scheduled for September 2025, will be the first voyage by humans to the vicinity of the Moon since the last Apollo lunar landing mission in 1972.

Heat shield issue may be close to resolution ... Chunks of charred material cracked and chipped away from Orion's heat shield during reentry at the end of the 25-day unpiloted Artemis I mission in December 2022, prompting several investigations. The most likely decision will be to fly the Orion spacecraft, which has its heat shield already attached, without any major hardware changes. Instead, NASA could change the slope of the capsule's reentry trajectory to change the heating profile on the bottom of the spacecraft. Wholesale changes to the heat shield would delay the Artemis II mission at least a year, and probably longer, to take apart the Orion spacecraft, develop and implement a solution, and then reassemble the spacecraft.

Next Vulcan launch set for mid-September. United Launch Alliance is targeting September 16 for the second test flight of the new Vulcan rocket, Ars reports. Should the flight be successful, it could finally set the stage for the first Vulcan launch for the US military by the end of the year. The US Space Force has contracted ULA's Vulcan rocket to launch the majority of the military's space missions over the next few years—the new rocket has a backlog of 25 military space missions the Space Force wants to launch by the end of 2027.

Some small slips still possible ... By any measure, the first Vulcan launch in January was a resounding success. On its debut flight, the new rocket delivered a commercial lunar lander to an on-target orbit. The next Vulcan mission, which ULA calls Cert-2, will be the rocket's second certification flight. Instead of earning revenue on the Cert-2 mission, ULA will fly a dummy payload, or a mass simulator. As the launch date is nearly two months out, don't be surprised if there are some minor adjustments to the schedule.

Next three launches

July 27: Falcon 9 | Starlink 10-9 | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | 04:21 UTC

July 28: Falcon 9 | Starlink 10-4 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. | 04:13 UTC

July 28: Falcon 9 | Starlink 9-4 | Vandenberg Space Force Base | 07:24 UTC