Rocket Report: Feds assess Starship fallout; Sweden accidentally bombs Norway

Welcome to Edition 5.35 of the Rocket Report! It may be difficult to believe, but we are in the final days of April already, meaning the year 2023 is nearly one-third over. If you are planning important launch milestones this year, please take note!

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.

VSS Unity returns to the skies. On Wednesday morning, the VMS Eve aircraft took off from Spaceport America and subsequently released the VSS Unity spacecraft at an altitude of about 14 kilometers, Ars reports. After this, the spacecraft glided back to the runway in New Mexico, testing modifications to the spacecraft's flight controls and handling. After the test, Virgin Galactic said the glide flight closes its "final validation test points" of a campaign to ensure the aircraft and space plane are ready to resume powered flights.

Commercial service on the horizon ... To that end, the company said data collected during the flight would be analyzed in the coming weeks, and assuming the review goes well, the next mission will be a powered spaceflight. That flight will carry two pilots and four company employees, who will serve as "mission specialists," to evaluate the customer experience during the mission. And if that flight goes well, Virgin Galactic said it is prepared to commence commercial service during the second quarter of 2023. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)

Rocket 4 scores a Space Force contract. Astra's new Rocket 4 launch vehicle, which remains under development, has won a launch contract from the US Space Force, the company announced this week. The $11.5 million award was granted through the Orbital Services Program-4, which is designed to foster launch services that can be quickly deployed. This is the first major government contract award announced for Astra's new, larger rocket, which is capable of lofting a few hundred kilograms to orbit.

Flying in two years ... "Astra’s ability to compete for this mission was based on the tremendous work that our team has done to design a repeatably reliable Rocket 4 and our previous experience successfully delivering multi-manifest missions to their desired orbits," said Thomas Williams, senior director of Federal Sales at Astra. The mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than April 2025. Astra may make a demonstration of the Rocket 4 vehicle near the end of this year or in 2024. Separately this week, Ursa Major said it is providing its Hadley upper-stage engine for Rocket 4. (submitted by Ken the Bin and brianrhurley)

Sweden accidentally crashes rocket into Norway. A sounding rocket was launched early Monday from the Esrange Space Center in Northern Sweden and reached an altitude of 250 km, according to the Swedish Space Corporation. Unfortunately, the rocket took a longer and more westerly trajectory than anticipated and subsequently crashed into a mountainside in Norway. This was about 40 km off target, and Norway was not pleased by the accident. Fortunately, no one was injured, and the nearest inhabited area was about 10 km away.

An un-merry Norway ... The Norwegian government nevertheless responded with a tart statement: "The crash of a rocket like this is a very serious incident that can cause serious damage. When such a border violation occurs, it is crucial that those responsible immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities through the proper channels." Obviously, if Esrange aspires to launch larger orbital rockets, this kind of thing probably shouldn't be happening. (submitted by Dravond, audunru, DanNeely, Marzipan, and Vetle)

SpaceX acquires a second Vandenberg pad. Col. Rob Long, Space Launch Delta 30 commander, signed a statement of support on April 21 granting SpaceX permission to lease Space Launch Complex 6 for Falcon rocket launches. This launch pad previously supported the Delta IV vehicle family and has remained vacant since the final Delta IV Heavy launch on September 24, 2022. This gives SpaceX a second launch pad at Vandenberg and will be used for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions.

A long history ... "This agreement will add to the rich history of SLC-6 and builds on the already strong partnership with SpaceX," Long said. After the announcement, NASASpaceflight.com posted a nice history of the launch site and a look ahead at what to expect from the Vandenberg pad. Please note that a blurb in this newsletter not all that long ago suggested the pad might be used by Blue Origin instead of SpaceX. That will go onto my wall of regrettable errors, you can be assured. Sorry about that bit of bad information. (submitted by Ken the Bin)