Rocket Report: China addresses falling rocket debris, Vulcan launch slipping

Welcome to Edition 5.42 of the Rocket Report! Sorry for missing last week, but I had to attend a family reunion. On a completely unrelated note, be sure to check back right here next week for an exciting announcement about the future of space coverage at Ars Technica. No, I'm not going anywhere—rather we're going to double up our coverage with a big hire!

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 sets next flight date. Virgin Galactic plans to conduct the first commercial flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle in late June on a mission for the Italian Air Force, Space News reports. Virgin said its “Galactic 01” mission will take place between June 27 and June 30 from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The flight will carry three people from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy under a contract Virgin Galactic signed with the Italian Air Force in 2019.

Keeping to the schedule ... The three Italians will conduct microgravity research on the flight. That will be followed by "Galactic 02" in early August. It will be the first to carry individuals who signed up for space tourism flights with the company, paying up to $450,000 per seat. To be honest, this is pretty impressive. Virgin Galactic announced a target of starting commercial service in the second quarter of 2023 more than half a year ago, and they appear to have stuck to that. At the time, I called the schedule "pretty optimistic." It looks like I was wrong, and I'm happy to admit it. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Firefly acquires Spaceflight. Firefly Aerospace announced last week that it acquired Spaceflight, a company that provides orbital transfer and last-mile services for satellites. "This acquisition is the result of Firefly’s business plan to strengthen the company through organic growth in addition to accelerating its capabilities with strategic acquisitions," said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. Terms were not disclosed.

Diversity is the name of the game ... The acquisition of Spaceflight furthers Firefly's ambition to become an integrated provider of both launch and in-space services, following a path of companies such as Rocket Lab that have sought to diversify beyond launch services. "The combination of Spaceflight’s on-orbit experience with Firefly’s launch vehicles, Blue Ghost landers, and Space Utility Vehicles is an overnight game changer for our customers and investors," Weber said. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Ursa Major lays off 27 percent of staff. The colourado-based engine manufacturer has laid off 80 people, or a little more than a quarter of its workforce, CNBC reports. In a statement, Ursa Major said the job reductions are “realigning our workforce to better meet the needs of our national security customers." Ursa Major has had some commercial success, selling its engines to companies such as Stratolaunch and Phantom Space.

Best of luck to job-seekers ... "We do want to acknowledge contributions of every current and former Ursa Major professional. Their efforts and achievements cannot be overstated, and we deeply appreciate the advances in space and hypersonic propulsion they helped make possible," Ursa Major said. In LinkedIn posts, multiple former Ursa Major employees wrote Wednesday was a “rough day” at the company, with “top-notch people” let go as part of the “major layoff.” (submitted by Tfargo04)

X-Bow claims second successful launch. Headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a company called X-Bow is developing "cost-effective," additively manufactured solid rocket motors for suborbital and orbital rockets. On Monday, the company conducted the second test launch of its “Bolt Rocket” at White Sands Missile Range in Southern New Mexico, the Albuquerque Journal reports. “We consider this a huge mission success,” said the company's CEO, Jason Hundley. “The system worked as planned—even better than we hoped.”

Attracting government interest ... Absent from this report, and the company's news release, is the altitude reached by the solid rocket. That's an important detail. Still, X-Bow may have a promising future. In April, it won a $60 million Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) award under the US Air Force’s AFWERX program to help finance further development of X-Bow’s proprietary advanced manufacturing technology for rapid production of low-cost rocket motors. That contract, which combines government funding with matching dollars from small innovation research grants and private investment, will culminate in a series of flight tests. (submitted by Tfargo04)

China builds pad for solid rocket launches. China has broken ground on a new launch pad dedicated to commercial solid rockets to help boost access to launch facilities, Space News reports. The new pad for solid rockets and its related infrastructure to provide power, test, and other facilities is expected to be finished within 180 days. The new project is part of the wider Hainan Commercial Launch Site for which two pads are currently under construction. One will be dedicated to kerolox launchers and another to methalox launch vehicles.

Lots of interested parties ... The first launch of a liquid rocket from the commercial spaceport is expected in early 2024. State-owned and related spinoffs from CASC, CASIC, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as commercial and semi-private companies, including iSpace, Galactic Energy, and Orienspace, are engaged in launching and developing solid propellant launch vehicles. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Final Ariane 5 launch is delayed indefinitely. The venerable Ariane 5 rocket, which for two decades has been the European Space Agency's primary means of reaching orbit, was due to make its final launch before retirement on Friday. However, there was a technical problem that delayed the rocket's rollout to the launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana. "There is a risk to the redundancy of a critical function on the Ariane 5," Arianespace tweeted on Thursday. "Consistent with safety requirements, Arianespace has decided to postpone the roll-out."

Hey, at least there's a shorter gap to Ariane 6 ... "Analyses are underway to determine a new launch date," Arianespace added. During a brief update later Thursday, Arianespace said it would try to provide a revised launch date sometime in late June. After this launch, the European Space Agency will be left without a medium-lift launch vehicle for at least the next six months, and possibly quite a bit longer, while Arianespace completes development and testing of the new Ariane 6 rocket. In the meantime, the European Space Agency has had to look elsewhere for launch options, including its rival, SpaceX. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Long March 2D sets deployment record. China launched a Long March 2D rocket on Thursday that placed 41 satellites into orbit, the Chinese state news service Xinhua reported. This tally set a domestic record for the most satellites lifted and deployed during a rideshare mission.

About one-third of overall record ... SpaceX holds the global record for most satellites launched by a single rocket, with 143 spacecraft on its Transporter-1 mission in 2021. SpaceX just launched its eighth overall Transporter mission on Monday. The Chinese government said the satellites launched Thursday would be used for commercial remote sensing services and "verification of related technologies." (submitted by EllPeaTea)

FAA seeks to minimize launch impacts on airlines. The launch cadence from Florida's Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center spaceports has increased dramatically in recent years, driven primarily by the Falcon 9 rocket. In response, the Federal Aviation Administration said it acted this spring to reduce the effects of space launches on civilian air travel, and this has already saved time for thousands of passengers and kept flights flowing smoothly to popular tourist destinations in Florida, USA Today reports.

Tighter guidelines ... Duane Freer, manager of the FAA Air Traffic Organization’s space operations, said the agency is "taking a finer pencil to the way operations are run and managed," resulting in both time and fuel savings for airlines and air travelers. A previous version of FAA guidance meant that planes set to fly that route during a space launch would have to take an aerial detour, causing longer travel time, more fuel burned, and more congested airspace over other parts of Florida. Since the new guidelines were instituted, airspace that previously would have been closed could remain open during 10 out of 12 space launches. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

China finally addressing falling rocket parts. After years of expecting its citizens to deal with debris from the Long March rockets, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology has developed a parachute system to guide its rockets to a predetermined landing zone, The Register reports. According to state-sponsored media, analysis of debris from a test determined that the parachute narrowed the landing area range of a recent Long March 3B rocket launch by 80 percent.

Likely not useful for the 5B ... The Long March 3B stage was returning from sending a BeiDou navigation satellite into orbit to add to China's GPS equivalent. The article makes a big deal about how this technology might be able to control the reentry of vehicles like the core stage of the much larger Long March 5B, which in the past has threatened to rain down large chunks of debris far beyond China's borders. However, it does not seem likely to me that such parachute technology would be applicable to this much larger stage coming back from orbit. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

SpaceX wins venture-class launch contract. Well, this is a bit of a surprise. NASA announced this week that it awarded a Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract to SpaceX to launch two Cubesats on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2025. Building on what NASA says is its "previous procurement efforts to foster development of a growing US commercial launch market," VADR provides launch services for payloads that can tolerate higher risk. Plainly speaking: If the rocket goes boom, it's not the end of the world.

Falcon 9, the experimental rocket? ... Recent awards under the VADR program have gone to less advanced launch companies, such as Phantom Space. And it's not like the Falcon 9 requires payloads to tolerate a higher risk, as this booster is arguably now the most reliable and proven rocket in the world. While SpaceX is one of 13 companies NASA selected for VADR contracts in 2022, there may be a bit more to this story. I'll try to find out. Feel free to reach out if you know. Anyway, if you're the principal investigator for one of these Cubesat missions you've got to feel like you hit the lottery here. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Vulcan launch date slipping toward end of year. The Vulcan rocket took a critical step toward its much-anticipated debut launch last week with a successful engine-firing test. However, one critical issue remains unresolved before the large booster can lift off. This final hurdle involves modifications to the rocket's Centaur V upper stage, which exploded during a test at the end of March, Ars reports. On Tuesday, the chief executive of Vulcan manufacturer United Launch Alliance, Tory Bruno, wrote on Twitter that a root cause of the failure had been identified, and the investigation has been concluded.

Still work to do ... As part of their recent updates, neither Bruno nor United Launch Alliance established a new target launch date. Two sources indicated to Ars, however, that this flight likely would not occur before the fourth quarter of this year due to additional work needed on the Centaur upper stage. The ongoing delays come amid growing concerns about the readiness of Vulcan at the US Space Force, which was supposed to start launching national security missions in 2022. Now, that will not happen until at least 2024 because Vulcan must fly two "certification" flights before it is deemed safe enough for valuable reconnaissance satellites.

Boeing hit with lawsuit for SLS rocket tooling. A Colorado-based company, Wilson Aerospace, is suing Boeing for what it claims to be "theft" of its intellectual property. At issue is a specific tool, known as a Fluid Fitting Torque Device-3, that Wilson developed and Boeing said it needed to attach four main engines to the Space Launch System rocket. The lawsuit was filed last week in US District Court in Seattle, where Boeing was originally based, Ars reports. The lawsuit alleges that Boeing reached out to Wilson in March 2014 after learning that the company had created the special torque device, which can precisely install high-torque fittings and nuts in tightly confined spaces.

Seeking punitive damages ... The engine section at the bottom of the Space Launch System rocket, where four RS-25 engines are mated to the large core stage with its propellant and oxidizer tanks, is one such tight space. Boeing is the prime contractor for the core stage of the Space Launch System rocket, which launched NASA's uncrewed Artemis I mission around the Moon in November 2022. Wilson Aerospace seeks a jury trial and punitive damages for what it claims is theft of its property and hopes to deter such conduct in the future. A Boeing spokesperson told Ars: "This lawsuit is rife with inaccuracies and omissions. We will vigorously defend against this in court." (submitted by Biokleen)

Next three launches

June 18: Electron | Dynamo-A hypersonic flight | Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia | 00:45 UTC

June 18: Falcon 9 | Satria telecom satellite | Cape Canaveral, Fla. | 22:04 UTC

June 20: Long March 6 | Undisclosed payload | Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China | 03:25 UTC