Rocket Report: Electron turns 50, China’s Moon launcher breathes fire

Welcome to Edition 6.49 of the Rocket Report! I want to open this week's report with a hearty congratulations to Rocket Lab for the company's 50th launch since Electron's debut in 2017. This is a fine achievement for a company founded in New Zealand, a country with virtually no space program.

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 and a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Electron celebrates its 50th. On Thursday, Rocket Lab launched its 50th Electron mission, "No Time Toulouse."  The mission successfully deployed five Internet-of-Things satellites for the French company Kinéis. This is a nice milestone for the company founded by Peter Beck in New Zealand. With this mission, Rocket Lab becomes the fastest company to go from one launch to 50 launches of a privately developed rocket, surpassing even SpaceX. The company's first Electron mission came about seven years ago.

A rare feat... “The launch industry is not an easy or forgiving one. Making it to your first launch is not a given, so reaching 50 Electron launches is an enormous achievement and a rare feat in the history of spaceflight,” Beck said. Ars will have more about this feat, the past, and the future of Rocket Lab in a forthcoming article based on a recent interview with Beck.

Isar raises $70 million more. Germany-based small launch vehicle developer Isar Aerospace has raised more than 65 million euros ($70 million) in an extension of an earlier funding round, Space News reports. The company said Thursday that its "extended" Series C round was now valued at 220 million euros, bringing its total fundraising to date to 400 million euros. This is more than any other launch startup in Europe. It's an impressive total.

Lighting up the spectrum... Among the participants in the latest round is the NATO Innovation Fund, a new venture fund backed by 24 of NATO’s 32 member states. The company said the additional funding will go toward efforts to scale up production of its Spectrum small launch vehicle. Isar is advancing toward stage testing of the Spectrum rocket, which is intended to carry 1 metric ton to low-Earth orbit. The vehicle's debut launch may occur next year. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Rocket Lab inks big Electron contract. The launch company said this week it has signed the largest Electron deal in its history with the Japanese Earth observation company Synspective. The Japanese firm agreed to purchase an additional 10 launches on Electron. Rocket Lab has been the sole launch provider for Synspective since 2020, successfully launching four missions for the company to date. (This announcement explains why, when I interviewed Rocket Lab chief Peter Beck this week, he was in Japan.)

A positive experience on Electron... In addition to the 10 new dedicated launches signed this week, another two launches for Synspective have already been booked and are scheduled to fly this year from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The launches in the new deal will take place from 2025 to 2027. "This agreement gives us a solid foundation and confidence, as Rocket Lab is an innovative launch provider," said Motoyuki Arai, the founder and chief executive of Synspective. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Matthew Brown to be taken down? The US Securities and Exchange Commission has sued a self-proclaimed venture capitalist, Matthew Brown, for making a "bogus offer" to acquire Virgin Orbit in the weeks before the launch company went bankrupt. According to the lawsuit filed Monday and reported by Bloomberg, Matthew Brown "made false and misleading statements and omissions about his investment experience and funds available to make such an offer." The SEC asserted that Brown sent Virgin Orbit a fabricated screenshot of his company’s bank account, claiming it held $182 million when, in reality, it had a balance of less than $1.

Brown intends to fight the allegations... "The SEC’s complaint is filled with egregious errors, fabrications, and biased allegations that undeniably favor the culprit, Virgin Orbit’s Management," a statement from a representative for Brown and his companies said. Brown's intervention came in the final days before Virgin Orbit declared bankruptcy, as the small launch company sought to find a buyer to preserve its LauncherOne rocket. Dan Hart, the former chief executive officer of Virgin Orbit, told the publication that the Brown bid was “an unneeded distraction” when the leadership team was “trying to find a path forward for the company." Ultimately, no such path could be found.

Autonomously designed engine is fired up. A Dubai-based company, LEAP 71, says it has developed a "Large Computational Engineering Model" that can autonomously design rocket engines. To that end, LEAP 71 co-founder Lin Kayser said the company's engineering model autonomously designed a small rocket engine in two weeks. Then the kerosene-liquid oxygen engine was 3D printed in copper and test fired. With 1,124 pounds of thrust, the engine generated 20,000 horsepower and completed all of its tests, including a long-duration burn, the company said.

Putting the rapid in rapid iteration... "Each new design iteration takes only about 15 minutes and is ready to print again," Kayser told Ars in an email. "The idea is to reduce engineering time and maximize testing iterations. Most rocket startups are still stuck in the long process of reengineering when they get their test results; we hope to eliminate that." Notably, the company also claims this is the first liquid-fueled rocket engine to be developed in the United Arab Emirates.

Musk, SpaceX sued for sexual harassment. SpaceX and its chief executive, Elon Musk, have been sued by eight engineers who say they were illegally fired for raising concerns about alleged sexual harassment and discrimination against women, Reuters reports. The engineers, four women and four men, claim Musk ordered their firing in 2022 after they circulated a letter calling the billionaire a "distraction and embarrassment" and urging executives to disavow sexually charged comments he had made on social media. The lawsuit was filed in state court in Los Angeles.

SpaceX denies wrongdoing... The lawsuit says Musk's conduct fostered a "pervasively sexist culture" at SpaceX where female engineers were routinely subjected to harassment and sexist comments and their concerns about workplace culture were ignored. Senior engineers, for example, used euphemisms for sexual acts and male genitals to describe rocket components, according to the lawsuit. SpaceX has denied wrongdoing, saying the 2022 letter was disruptive and the workers were properly fired for violating company policies. The company has also denied that Musk was involved in the decision to fire the engineers.

Vega C split from Arianespace is stuck for now. The European Space Agency has been asked to mediate the ongoing negotiations to transfer operations of the Vega C rocket from Arianespace to its manufacturer, Avio, European Spaceflight reports. At issue is Avio's desire to market its Vega C rocket, perhaps because the Italian company does not believe Arianespace has been aggressive enough in selling the rocket to potential customers. While Avio and Arianespace have agreed to part company on Vega C, it's not clear how the 17 missions currently under contract will be negotiated.

Getting back to space... European Space Agency officials have held several meetings with both parties over the last three weeks. As a result of these discussions, the space agency's director general, Josef Aschbacher, said that “conditions for the transfer of Vega C from Arianespace to Avio are clear.” However, he also admitted that there are still “open items” that need to be resolved and that it is still “up to the two companies.” Meanwhile, as Avio and Arianespace finalize divorce terms, the Italian rocket builder is still working toward returning Vega C to flight following a December 2022 failure. It's possible a return-to-flight mission could happen later this year. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Some insight into SpaceX share sales. In May 2022, SpaceX offered its employees the opportunity to sell shares of the privately held company at a price of $70 to select investors, an internal document reveals. Obtained by TechCrunch, the discounted price was offered to only a handful of investors with close ties to SpaceX founder Elon Musk or his companies, including Andreessen Horowitz, Aliya Capital Partners, and Gigafund. This price represented a huge discount over the price paid during a primary sale that year, in which SpaceX sold shares to investors to raise capital. During a sale that year, the price was $270.

Preferred vs common stock ... The main reason for this discounted price is that employees own common stock, and investors who buy into primary rounds typically buy preferred stock that entitles them to dividends and liquidation preferences. They are the first to be paid their investment back if the company ever sells itself. It is not clear when, if ever, SpaceX will go public. Secondary sales like this remain one of the only ways that employees have to sell their shares. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Launch date set for Falcon Heavy. NASA says the two-hour launch window for its GOES-U mission will open at 5:16 pm ET (21:16 UTC) on Tuesday, June 25. The environmental satellite will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This will be the first Falcon Heavy launch of the year.

First flight of the big rocket this year... The GOES-U satellite, the final addition to the GOES-R series, will help to prepare for two kinds of weather—Earth and space weather. The GOES satellites serve a critical role in providing continuous coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including monitoring tropical systems in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans, NASA said. They also observe the Sun. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Blue Origin rolls into Lane 1. After years of lobbying, protests, and bidding, Jeff Bezos' space company is now a military launch contractor, Ars reports. The US Space Force announced late last week that Blue Origin will compete with United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for at least 30 military launch contracts over the next five years. These launch contracts have a combined value of up to $5.6 billion. For more than a decade following its formation from the merger of Boeing and Lockheed Martin rocket programs, ULA was the sole company certified to launch the military's most critical satellites. This changed in 2018 when SpaceX started launching national security satellites for the military. In 2020, despite protests from Blue Origin seeking eligibility, the Pentagon selected ULA and SpaceX to continue sharing launch duties.

Lane 1 now, Lane 2 soon... Over the next five years, the Space Force wants to tap into new launch capabilities from emerging space companies. The procurement approach for this new round of contracts, known as NSSL Phase 3, is different from the way the military previously bought launch services. Instead of grouping all national security launches into one monolithic contract, the Space Force is dividing them into two classifications: Lane 1 and Lane 2. The Space Force's contract announced Thursday was for Lane 1, which is for less demanding missions to low-Earth orbit. These missions include smaller tech demos, experiments, and launches for the military’s new constellation of missile-tracking and data-relay satellites. This fall, the Space Force will award up to three contracts for Lane 2, which covers the government's most sensitive national security satellites. Two of these winners will almost certainly be ULA and SpaceX. It is less certain whether a third bidder, Blue Origin, will be awarded any of these contracts.

Long March 10 undergoes test firing. China’s main space contractor has carried out a successful static fire test of a rocket first stage designed to take astronauts to the Moon, Space News reports. A Long March 10 first stage test article was fired in the Fengtai district of Beijing on Friday, June 14. This is the rocket that will be used for China's initial lunar missions involving humans. The country has set the goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by 2030. The rocket, at least, would seem to be making steady progress toward this goal.

Three engines on this test ... The test article had three YF-100K kerosene-liquid oxygen engines installed across its 5.0-meter diameter. The full Long March 10 first stage will be powered by seven such engines. The rocket’s second stage will have two similar stages attached to it. The engines may have been limited to three due to the capacity of the test stand. The static fire was, however, deemed a complete success, with simultaneous firing of the three engines. “The test is basically a comprehensive verification of our first-stage,” Xu Hongping, an engineer with CASC, told Chinese state television. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Next three launches

June 20: Falcon 9 | Astra 1P | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 21:35 UTC

June 22: Long March 2C | Space Variable Objects Monitor | Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China | 07:00 UTC

June 23: Falcon 9 | Starlink 10-2 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 17:03 UTC