Rocket Report: Big dreams in Sin City; SpaceX and FAA seek to halt lawsuit

Welcome to Edition 6.01 of the Rocket Report! Due to the fact that we are up to Edition 6, it means that Ars has been publishing this newsletter for five years. I genuinely want to thank everyone for their contributions over the years, whether you've submitted a story (Ken the Bin for MVP?) or just passed the newsletter along to a friend to subscribe. Also, starting next week our new space hire, Stephen Clark, will alternate publication of the newsletter with me. Hopefully, there will be no missed issues going forward.

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.

Virgin Galactic flies commercial mission. The space tourism company founded by Richard Branson launched three Italian researchers and three company employees on the suborbital operator’s first commercial flight to the edge of space on June 29, Ars reports. The spacecraft rocketed to an altitude of more than 279,000 feet, higher than the 50-mile height recognized as the boundary of space by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Next flight in August ... Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, hailed the flight Thursday as the start of a "new era of repeatable and reliable access to space for private passengers and researchers." But it hasn't been an easy road for Virgin Galactic to reach this point, and the company is still facing headwinds. Another commercial flight by Virgin Galactic is planned in August, followed by monthly revenue-earning suborbital missions. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Vega C rocket still struggling. A static fire test of a Vega C "Zefiro 40" second stage conducted on June 28 ended in failure. Avio, the rocket's Italy-based manufacturer, said of the test, "The new carbon-carbon material showed a nominal performance, closely linked to prediction. However, after 40 seconds into the test, another anomaly was revealed, leading to a reduction in overall pressure performance of the motor before the test completion planned at 97 seconds."

Vega C in 2023 is not meant to be ... The test comes as the new rocket, intended to replace the original Vega model, attempts a return to flight after a failure on the booster's second flight in December 2022. European Spaceflight reports that the European Space Agency has established an Independent Enquiry Commission to investigate the failure during the static fire test. Progress on returning Vega C to flight will be halted until the investigation's conclusion, likely pushing its return into the first quarter of 2024 at the earliest. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Astra creates spacecraft engine subsidiary. Astra is carving out its spacecraft engine business as a wholly owned subsidiary, a corporate restructuring that will provide greater flexibility in hiring and financing, TechCrunch reports. The publication suggests that one of the restructuring goals is to hire well-qualified employees who are not US citizens, as American launch companies are governed by strict export control rules known as International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Finding new hires ... The company acquired electric propulsion company Apollo Fusion in July 2021, right after going public via SPAC merger. But according to LinkedIn, of the employees that list Apollo Fusion under their prior work experience, nearly all of them have since moved on from Astra. Honestly, I don't know what this means for Astra's launch business and its Rocket 4 vehicle, but I'll remain skeptical about its prospects until the vehicle is on the launch pad. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

PLD Space postpones debut launch. Spanish launch vehicle startup PLD Space has postponed a suborbital test flight to September after weather and a technical glitch scrubbed earlier launch attempts, Space News reports. The company announced on June 27 that the launch of its Miura 1 rocket from a military base in southwestern Spain would be rescheduled for September. The company cited “obligatory compliance” with a Spanish law and military directive that restrict such activities to prevent wildfires.

It's probably more than the wildfires ... During a launch attempt on June 17, the countdown reached T-0 and the vehicle’s first-stage engine ignited, only to immediately shut down. PLD Space later said it aborted the launch because not all the umbilical cables attached to the rocket’s avionics bay separated as required. Miura 1 is a suborbital vehicle whose single stage is designed to splash down under a parachute and be recovered. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Canadian spaceport hosts its first launch. On Thursday, a rocketry team from Ontario’s York University, Arbalest Rocketry, launched its amateur ‘Goose 3’ rocket from the Spaceport Nova Scotia launchpad. The largely ceremonial event was billed as "a demonstration that Canadian rocketry and engineering education is making significant progress and developing space sector excellence" by Maritime Launch, which is developing the spaceport in Nova Scotia.

How high did it go? ... In the news release about the launch, there were no details about the rocket or its altitude. It was regulated to achieve a maximum altitude of 25 km, however. Development of the spaceport remains in its initial phases, and while there is talk of orbital rocket tenants, so far, there are no firm, publicly announced plans for what companies, or rockets, will launch from the Canadian site. (submitted by Joey-SIVB)

Vegas developer has big dreams. Las Vegas commercial real estate developer Rob Lauer envisions developing a private spaceport on 240 acres in Clark County, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Recently he began soliciting investors to raise $310 million to build a launching pad, a runway for spaceplanes, a control tower, a flight school, and a 200-room casino resort between Las Vegas and Pahrump.

I'd bet on (going into the) red ... Lauer expects that within 10 years, at least one of the several companies that are developing aircraft that can take off and land on a runway will produce a vehicle that can achieve Earth orbit and possibly visit an orbiting hotel in space as a tourism venture. Here in the real world, we already have a spaceport in the Southwestern US desert, Spaceport America in New Mexico. And it's not exactly a commercial success. But good luck, I guess. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Sea-launch company gets small grant. The Spaceport Company, a startup developing floating launch pads for space rockets, is one of 17 companies selected to receive government funding this year under the National Security Innovation Capital program, which is funded by the US Department of Defense, Space News reports. The company, which recently conducted a prototype demonstration of a sea-based launch platform in the Gulf of Mexico, received $1.5 million.

Working toward an operational system ... The Department of Defense views mobile launch pads that operate at sea as “one solution to the increasing congestion at major launch sites.” Funding from the military program will enable the company to build a full prototype and its first operational system. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Ariane 5 makes its final launch. The Ariane 5 rocket has had a long run, with nearly three decades of service launching satellites and spacecraft. Over that time, the iconic rocket, with a liquid hydrogen-fueled core stage and solid rocket boosters, symbolized Europe's guaranteed access to space. But on Wednesday evening, the rocket made its final launch into space, capping a career of 117 missions, Ars reports. And the Ariane 5's retirement leaves no replacement for Europe in its wake.

Waiting for the next generation ... As of July 2023, it's clear that the Ariane 6 rocket will not fly before next year and probably not until at least the summer of 2024. Recently, at the Paris Air Show, officials from Arianespace and other European entities declined to provide a new estimated debut launch date. There remains a lot of work to be done, including an additional hot fire test of the rocket's upper stage, flight software qualification tests, and rocket assembly on the launch pad. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Falcon 9 launches high-profile European telescope. A European Space Agency telescope launched Saturday on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida to begin a $1.5 billion mission seeking to answer fundamental questions about the unseen forces driving the expansion of the Universe. The Euclid telescope, named for the ancient Greek mathematician, will observe billions of galaxies during its six-year survey of the sky, Ars reports.

A good price for an on-time launch ... The Euclid mission was originally slated to launch on a Russian Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in French Guiana, but that option became unavailable after Russia invaded Ukraine. Euclid was already built and well into its final round of pre-launch testing when ESA had to search for a new launch vehicle and ended up on the Falcon 9. SpaceX charged about $70 million to launch Euclid. That’s about $5 million above the standard commercial “list price” for a dedicated Falcon 9 launch, covering extra costs for SpaceX to meet unusually stringent cleanliness requirements for the Euclid telescope.

Zhuque-2 rocket nearing second launch. A quasi-private Chinese company, LandSpace, is preparing for the second launch attempt of its Zhuque-2 rocket. This booster, fueled by methane, made its debut last December but fell short of reaching orbit after an early shutdown of some of the engines on its second stage. The Zhuque-2 booster is vying to become the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit ahead of Vulcan and Starship.

Rolling into history ... According to Chinese sources, the rocket rolled to its launch pad on Thursday, ahead of an attempt tentatively scheduled for July 12. The Zhuque-2 is estimated to have the capacity to put about six metric tons into low-Earth orbit. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Starship to use 'hot staging' in next launch. As it works toward the second launch of its Starship rocket from South Texas, SpaceX is changing the separation of the booster from the upper stage, Ars reports. “We made a sort of a late-breaking change that's really quite significant to the way that stage separation works, which is to use what's called ‘hot staging,’ where we light the engines of the upper stage, or ship, while the first stage, or booster stage, engines are still on,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said during a Twitter Spaces event.

Kind of a big change ... Russian rockets, like the venerable Soyuz, have employed the hot-staging technique for decades, but it’s not used on any modern US launch vehicle. Typically, rockets switch off their booster engines for a few seconds before jettisoning the first stage and lighting the upper stage engine. Musk said SpaceX would shut down most of the Super Heavy booster’s engines, then fire the engines on the Starship upper stage simultaneously. The upshot of the change is it increases the Starship’s payload lift capability, which already amounted to more than 100 metric tons to low-Earth orbit. But it means engineers must add shielding to the top of the stainless steel booster, which SpaceX wants to recover and reuse numerous times.

Vulcan sent back into the barn. United Launch Alliance technicians at Cape Canaveral, Florida, have partially disassembled the first Vulcan rocket to send the launch vehicle’s upper stage back to its factory for reinforcements to its paper-thin steel fuel tank, Ars reports. Gary Wentz, ULA’s vice president for government and commercial programs, confirmed previous reporting from Ars that the first Vulcan launch is now targeted for no earlier than the fourth quarter of this year.

Hardening the hydrogen tank ... The work was necessary after a test article for the Vulcan rocket’s Centaur V upper stage exploded on March 29 during a structural test. ULA described the work needed on the Centaur V upper stage as “minor reinforcement at the top of the forward dome,” or the uppermost section of the liquid hydrogen tank. The changes will add strength to the tank, which contains super-flammable fuel chilled to minus 423° Fahrenheit (minus 253° Celsius).

SpaceX, FAA seek to dismiss lawsuit. SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration are asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit by environmental and Indigenous groups seeking a new assessment of the environmental impacts of rocket launches from South Texas, the San Antonio Express-News reports. In a filing Friday, the FAA said the groups lack legal standing for their claims against the agency that granted a launch license to SpaceX’s Starship rocket program.

Putting down expensive roots ... Both seek to dismiss a lawsuit filed in May by the Center for Biological Diversity, American Bird Conservancy, SurfRider Foundation, Save Rio Grande Valley, and the Carrizo-Comecrudo Nation of Texas. It alleged the FAA should have conducted a more in-depth environmental study on the likely impacts of SpaceX activity before allowing it to launch from its Starbase facility at Boca Chica. They also alleged the mitigations the FAA required were not enough to avoid “significant adverse effects” to endangered species. In a separate filing, SpaceX noted it has invested $3 billion in the Starbase facility since 2014.

Blue Origin seeks international launch site. Blue Origin is searching for a site to build an international launch facility as it looks to compete with SpaceX, the Financial Times reports. "We're looking for anything we can do to acquire, to scale up to better serve our customers," Bob Smith, Blue Origin's chief executive, told the publication. "It's not a function of size, rather how much it accelerates our road map of what we're trying to get done."

Seeking acquisitions, too ... The company may be looking for a site in Europe, where it is actively looking for fresh acquisitions and partnerships in areas such as manufacturing and software. This is all well and good, but as a critical first step, Blue Origin needs to get its New Glenn rocket flying. The company is still talking about a debut launch in 2024, but without seeing substantial flight hardware and critical tests, it is difficult to put too much credit into that prediction.

Next three launches

July 7: Falcon 9 | Starlink 5-13 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 19:29 UTC

July 9: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-5 | Cape Canaveral, Fla. | 08:46 UTC

July 12: Zhuque-2 | Second test flight | Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China | TBD