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Welcome to Edition 5.39 of the Rocket Report! Weather permitting, SpaceX has a busy weekend of launch ahead. The company has two launches within nine hours of one another on Friday, and then the crewed launch of the Ax-2 private mission on Sunday. Safe travels to all.
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.
A Canadian spaceport is valued really, really highly. A Canadian think tank, the Conference Board of Canada, has published an economic analysis on plans to build a launch site in Nova Scotia, spaceQ reports. The report "Launching Canada’s Space Sector: Economic Impact of Spaceport Nova Scotia" finds that construction of such a facility would contribute $171 million to Canada’s GDP and boost employment by an average of 1,608 annual full-year jobs across Canada, with 748 of those jobs within the province of Nova Scotia.
An outlook as sweet as maple syrup ... The report has more rosy numbers, too: "Once Spaceport Nova Scotia fully ramps up its operations, we project it will add around $300 million to Canada’s GDP annually, boost revenue to governments by more than $100 million, and create close to 1,000 annual full-year jobs across Canada." These figures seem astonishingly optimistic given that the launch site does not have a single anchor tenant yet. But I guess you have to start somewhere, and if it takes an economic report like this to unlock government dollars, then more power to Maritime Launch Services, which is developing the spaceport. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
UK will not bail out Virgin Orbit. The British government, which helped buy OneWeb out of bankruptcy three years ago, has no plans to do the same with launch company Virgin Orbit, Space News reports. George Freeman, minister for Science, Innovation, and Technology in the UK government, told a Parliament committee that the government had “taken a close interest” in Virgin Orbit, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States last month, but had no plans to acquire the company.
Final bids due Friday ... Virgin Orbit is nearing the end of a bankruptcy sale process, with final bids due May 19. If the company receives more than one qualified bid, it will hold an auction on May 22, with a hearing about the winning bid in federal bankruptcy court on May 24. In a May 16 court filing, Virgin Orbit announced a “stalking horse” bid agreement with Stratolaunch, which would buy Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747 aircraft and related equipment for $17 million. That agreement effectively sets a minimum price for the auction but allows others to offer higher bids for the aircraft, other assets, or the entire company. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
VSS Unity flight date set. Virgin Galactic says that May 25 will mark the opening of the launch window for its Unity 25 mission from Spaceport America in New Mexico, Yahoo Finance reports. The VSS Unity spacecraft will include four crew members and a pair of pilots. With the upcoming flight, Virgin Galactic aims to "make a final assessment of the full spaceflight and astronaut experience before commercial service begins," the company said.
Another flight next month? ... Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said earlier this month that the company remains on track to start commercial service in June. "Our first commercial flight Galactic 01 is planned for late June and will be a scientific research flight with members of the Italian Air Force," Colglazier said "We plan to follow Galactic 01 with both civilian astronauts and research customers flying on regular intervals thereafter." (submitted by brianrhurley, Ken the Bin, and DanNeely)
Vector Launch tests engines with Ursa Major. Vector Launch—yes, that Vector—announced Wednesday that Ursa Major completed acceptance testing of three Hadley first-stage engines for Vector Launch’s upcoming "National Security Mission." Vector is a reformulated launch company that emerged from the bankruptcy of its predecessor, Vector Space Systems. Interestingly, Jim Cantrell, who was ousted as Vector's CEO as part of the bankruptcy, went on to found Phantom Space. That launch company is also using engines built by Ursa Major.
All about the mission ... So far, the revamped Vector has yet to say much about the design of its new rocket. Instead, we're left with statements like this: "The upcoming Vector Launch national security mission will rely on Ursa Major's engines, and the company is confident they will perform within mission specifications. The successful completion of acceptance testing is a major milestone for Vector, and we look forward to conducting a successful launch for our customer,” said Robert Spalding, Vector Launch CEO.
Embry-Riddle students set rocketry record. An amateur rocket set a new record last month, soaring far higher than Mount Everest, Space.com reports. Students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University launched a small rocket to a maximum altitude of 14,548 meters. The feat more than doubled the previous record set by US undergraduate and collegiate amateurs, which was 6,706 m.
Climb every mountain ... "I fell to my knees, sobbing, from witnessing such an incredible feat," student Dalton Songer said, evoking the 4,000 hours of work that went into the construction, testing, and launch. "Everyone was celebrating in a giant group hug," Songer said. "That moment was special—something that only happens when a dedicated group of individuals come together and make something incredible happen against all odds." Congratulations to all. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Ax-2 Crew mission is go for launch. The second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station remains on track to lift off on Sunday. NASA, SpaceX, and Houston company Axiom Space held a flight readiness review Monday for the Ax-2 mission, which is scheduled to launch four people. "At the end of that review, the full team polled 'go,'" Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, said. The mission will spend eight days docked to the ISS.
Two days but then a long delay ... If Ax-2 can't get off the ground on Sunday, it has another chance on Monday. If the mission misses that backup opportunity, however, it will have to wait a while to get to space: NASA and SpaceX will then shift toward preparing for the launch of CRS-28, SpaceX's 28th robotic cargo mission to the ISS, which is slated to lift off from KSC on June 3. "And then, at that time, Axiom, NASA, and SpaceX will get together and look for the next best opportunity as we look at the missions that we have this summer," said Joel Montalbano, NASA's manager for the ISS program. (submitted by Tfargo04)
Ariane 6 debut slips into 2024. Officially, the European Space Agency and Arianespace are not saying anything about a launch date slip for the Ariane 6 rocket. However, based upon recent updates to the rocket's development milestones, Ars reports that a realistic "no earlier than" launch date for the Ariane 6 is now the second quarter of 2024. More realistically, the launch will occur sometime next summer. In a statement, the European Space Agency said it would set a date for the rocket's debut later this summer.
Continent without medium-lift for a while... The development of the Ariane 6 rocket is a matter of some urgency for Europe, which has set "independent access to space" as a priority. However, the Ariane 5 rocket will make its final flight before retirement in June, leaving the continent without a medium-lift launch capability. It's likely that the European Space Agency will have to resort to buying launches from its competitor, SpaceX, for institutional satellite launches.
Intuitive Machines launch delayed again. Intuitive Machines says its first lunar lander mission has slipped into the third quarter of this year, Space News reports. Last February, the company announced plans for a June landing at Malapert A, a crater near the south pole of the Moon. That date was a slip from a previously scheduled March launch, which the company said was linked to NASA’s decision to move the landing site to Malapert A. The lunar lander will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket.
Still some work to do ... In a May 11 earnings call, the first for the company since it went public through a special purpose acquisition company merger in February, Chief Executive Steve Altemus said that the company’s Nova-C lander being completed for its IM-1 mission would be “at the launch pad and preparing for liftoff” in mid to late third quarter. "We have some functional testing” still to do on the lander, Altemus said, but did not elaborate on the nature of those tests or their schedule ahead of shipping to Cape Canaveral. (submitted by Ken the Bin
SpaceX hires Kathy Lueders. Kathy Lueders, most recently the top human spaceflight official at NASA, has joined SpaceX after retiring from the agency a couple of weeks ago, CNBC reports. Lueders’ role will be general manager, and she will work out of the company’s Starbase facility in Texas, reporting directly to SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell. Lueders retired from NASA at the end of April following a 31-year career with the agency. Before leading NASA’s human spaceflight program, she oversaw the culmination of its Commercial Crew program as manager.
Humans on Starship, too ... Lueders follows in the footsteps of one of her recent NASA predecessors, William Gerstenmaier, who joined SpaceX in 2020 after more than a decade as the agency’s top human spaceflight official. Her hiring to run Starbase will give government customers comfort and confidence that Starship will be a real thing around which they can base future plans and operations. It's also significant for the future of human spaceflight on Starship as well. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Vulcan static fire test delayed. United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan rocket was filled with methane and liquid oxygen propellants at Cape Canaveral on May 12 for a tanking test, Spaceflight Now reports. The company planned to move into a static fire test on Monday, but managers decided to move the rocket back inside its hangar for a few modifications before proceeding with the test firing. "Based on the test, there are several parameters that will be adjusted prior to conducting the Flight Readiness Firing," a ULA spokesperson said.
Launch maybe 'later in the year' ... The rocket’s Flight Readiness Firing, a planned six-second ignition of the launcher’s two Blue Origin-built BE-4 main engines, is the final big test of the rocket before a launch attempt. However, the bigger constraint to launch is the ongoing resolution of a Centaur upper stage explosion in late March during a test in Alabama. "We had a leak in our steel pressure vessel, and we’ve just now got our hands in all the pieces of that," CEO Tory Bruno said this week. "We’ll sort it out. We’ll resolve it. It’ll either take no corrective action, in which case we’ll fly very soon, or maybe we’ll have to do something to the flight vehicle, and it will be later in the year." (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Artemis Program facing a budget crunch. This week, the space agency's chief official for human spaceflight in deep space, Jim Free, discussed the Artemis Program's budget from fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2028. During these five years, the space agency will spend at least $41.5 billion on the Artemis program, when there is likely to be a single human landing at most. This includes some staggering sums for the Space Launch System rocket, $11 billion, which has already been developed for this mission, Ars reports.
Priorities become clear ... This $11 billion is approximately the same amount of money that NASA proposes spending on not one but two lunar landers for humans, which are arguably as complex as the SLS rocket, which has been in development since 2011. NASA did not award its first lunar lander contract until 2021. It is not clear why NASA needs to spend as much money on a flight-proven rocket as it does on the development of two large and technically challenging human landers.
Next three launches
May 19: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-3 | Cape Canaveral, Fla. | 04:41 UTC
May 19: Falcon 9 | Iridium-9 and OneWeb | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 13:19 UTC
May 21: Falcon 9 | Axiom-2 crew mission | Kennedy Space Center, Fla. | 21:37 UTC
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