Rocket Report: Iran launches satellite; Artemis II boosters get train ride

Welcome to Edition 6.13 of the Rocket Report! While SpaceX waits for regulatory approval to launch the second full-scale test flight of its Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket, NASA's contractors took two steps forward this week to prepare for the second launch of the government-owned Space Launch System on the Artemis II mission, which will send a team of four astronauts around the far side of the Moon. This launch is still more than a year away. How many Starship test flights will SpaceX launch before Artemis II? Will Blue Origin's New Glenn be flying by then?

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.

Iran has launched a small satellite. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps successfully launched a small satellite named Noor 3 into orbit Wednesday, Reuters reported. This military satellite launched aboard a Qased rocket, a small launch vehicle powered by a liquid-fueled booster stage. The Qased, which means "messenger" in Persian, is reportedly capable of carrying a payload of up to about 100 pounds (45 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit. Publicly available US military tracking data indicated the rocket deployed the Noor 3 satellite into an orbit about 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth.

Purely military ... This was the third consecutive successful launch of the Qased rocket to put a small satellite into orbit. The Qased design is likely derived from one of Iran's medium-range ballistic missiles, and its ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps—designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US government—suggest a military purpose to the rocket and the satellites it carries into space. The commander of the Revolutionary Guard said the Noor 3 satellite would meet the military's "intelligence needs" using cameras and "signal detection" technology, according to Iran's state-run news agency. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

FAA closes investigation into New Shepard failure. The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it has closed an investigation into the failure of Blue Origin's New Shepard booster last September. The FAA said engineers determined the "proximate cause" of the accident was the "structural failure of an engine nozzle caused by higher than expected engine operating temperatures." The FAA didn't mention a root cause for the rocket failure, which occurred on a suborbital research flight, and not on a mission with any passengers on board. After detecting the failure, the unoccupied crew capsule on top of the rocket fired its abort motor and vaulted away from the New Shepard booster, parachuting to a safe touchdown. The rocket was destroyed.

Blue Origin remains mum on the issue ... Blue Origin declined to answer questions from Ars, saying only that the company plans to fly again soon. That's the same thing Blue Origin said back in March. Ars recently reported that Blue Origin could resume launches with the New Shepard booster as soon as October after implementing corrective actions. Blue Origin identified some of those corrective actions as design changes to the combustion chamber and operating parameters of the rocket's hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine. The FAA said Blue Origin is required to implement 21 corrective actions in total, including unspecified "organization changes." (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Space Force looks toward next responsive launch demo. The US Space Force's successful "Victus Nox" responsive launch demonstration on September 14 set a high bar, with contractor teams proving that they could prepare a satellite for launch, integrate it with a rocket, and send it into orbit in record time, Space News reports. The payload, a Millennium Space small satellite, was operational 37 hours after launch. Leading up to the launch, the companies were able to integrate the payload and get ready for liftoff within 58 hours. Firefly Aerospace was given 24 hours’ notice to launch. The previous record for a rapid-response mission, set in 2021, was 21 days.

Where does responsive space go from here? ... For a long time now, military officials have desired the capability to quickly react to threats by launching a satellite to meet a specific need. Examples of this situation include replacing a failed or destroyed satellite, fulfilling a battlefield requirement for tactical communications, or responding to an urgent need to monitor another country's activities in space. The military's next responsive space demonstration, called "Victus Haze," will build on the lessons learned from Victus Nox. The Space Force's focus is on exploiting manufacturing and operational capabilities already being developed by the commercial space industry—giving the military the ability to pull a rocket and satellite off an already-running production line—not in fielding a dedicated fleet of small responsive launchers that remain on standby to launch on need.

ArianeGroup adds funding to reusable rocket company. ArianeGroup, Europe's largest launch vehicle manufacturer, recently invested 27 million euros into a reusable rocket startup called MaiaSpace, European Spaceflight reports. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in France, MaiaSpace is working toward the ambitious goal of a 2025 maiden flight of Maia, a partially reusable two-stage rocket that will be capable of launching a payload of about a half-ton into orbit, when setting aside margin for recovery of the methane-fueled booster stage.

Finally, some real money ... MaiaSpace reported total expenses of just under 3.5 million euros in 2022, nearly half of which was devoted to workforce and staffing costs in the company's first full year of operation. ArianeGroup has now injected about 33 million euros into MaiaSpace over the last year. This will help MaiaSpace ramp up hiring, testing, and manufacturing as it targets the 2025 inaugural flight of the Maia rocket. Recent technical progress reported by MaiaSpace includes a cryogenic filling test of a full-scale upper-stage qualification model, and sub-system tests on the rocket's optional kick stage. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Military awards contract for innovative solid rocket propulsion tech. A startup named X-Bow Systems has received a $17.8 million contract from the US Air Force Research Laboratory to demonstrate additive manufacturing technologies for solid rocket propulsion, Space News reports. X-Bow specializes in additive manufacturing of solid rocket propellant to enable the rapid development of solid rocket motors, which are used by the military in tactical missiles and could be scaled up for use in space launch vehicles.

High hopes ... X-Bow eventually hopes to compete for military contracts against established solid rocket manufacturers like Northrop Grumman and Aerojet Rocketdyne, which was recently acquired by L3Harris. The company's founder, Jason Hundley, says X-Bow's technology can work for any size rocket motor, and the 3D-printing technology will permit the stand-up of a solid propellant production line within 12 months rather than the three to six years it takes for traditional aerospace companies. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

SpaceX launches two more Starlink missions. SpaceX continues to launch an average of about two times per week, with another pair of Falcon 9 launches successfully completed Saturday and Monday from the company's launch pads in Florida and California. Both launches deployed Starlink Internet satellites and marked the 67th and 68th flights of a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket this year. SpaceX has now launched more than 5,100 Starlink satellites to date.

15 years of progress ... It's remarkable that it has taken SpaceX only 15 years to get to this point since the first successful flight of the company's Falcon 1 rocket, the predecessor to the Falcon 9. SpaceX celebrated the 15th anniversary of the first fully successful Falcon 1 flight on September 28, following three test flights that failed before reaching orbit. SpaceX retired the Falcon 1 after one more mission to pour resources into completing the development of Falcon 9, which is now, by any measure, the world's most reliable launch vehicle.

Russia nears tests of beleaguered Angara rocket. Russian technicians at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, the country's newest spaceport, have started assembling a full-size model of the Angara A5 rocket, the replacement for Russia's Proton rocket used for medium- to heavy-lift missions. This engineering prototype, called the Angara-NZh, will be installed on a new launch pad at Vostochny in Russia's Far East for a series of tests, according to veteran Russian space reporter Anatoly Zak. These tests will include a firing test of an escape system for Russia's Orel human spaceflight vehicle, a mock-up of which will be installed on top of the Angara-NZh rocket prototype.

Not a model program ... The Angara A5 rocket was delayed numerous years until it flew for the first time in 2014. But since then, it has launched just three times, most recently in 2021, when its mission failed due to a problem with the rocket's upper stage. Construction at Vostochny, near the Russian-Chinese border, has been plagued by setbacks and corruption. And the Orel spacecraft, which Russian officials say will replace the country's Soyuz spacecraft, is unlikely to fly people into orbit before the end of the decade. Given the decay of Russia's space program, Orel probably won't ever transport cosmonauts into space, and when the Angara rocket will actually launch from Vostochny is anyone's guess.

Blue Origin's chief executive is leaving the company. Bob Smith is out at Blue Origin after six years as the company's CEO, Ars reports. Smith announced he is "stepping aside" as Blue Origin's chief executive on Monday. The new CEO of Jeff Bezos' space company will be Dave Limp, who stepped down as Amazon's vice president of devices and services last month. Smith's tenure was rocky, with Blue Origin late on developing the BE-4 rocket engine to be used on United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket and Blue Origin's own New Glenn rocket, which still hasn't reached the launch pad.

Can Limp get it going? ... Limp arrives at Blue Origin with much work to do. The company has major programs, including the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, the Blue Moon lunar lander, and the Orbital Reef space station in the development phase. He must balance these initiatives with the company's ongoing work to scale production of the BE-4 rocket engine as well as the New Shepard suborbital spacecraft. Blue Origin now employs nearly 11,000 people, and Limp's success will be measured by how well the company executes these programs. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Two steps forward for Artemis II. The two main contractors on the core stage for NASA's Space Launch System—Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne—have installed the four RS-25 main engines on the core stage slated to fly on the Artemis II mission. This will be the first flight of the SLS rocket with astronauts, and two of the engines have human spaceflight heritage under their belts, having flown on space shuttle missions more than a decade ago. Of course, they won't be recovered and flown again after launching on the single-use SLS rocket. The other two core stage engines were assembled using leftover parts at the end of the space shuttle program. A NASA spokesperson tells Ars the core stage is scheduled to be completed in December at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, then shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch processing.

Motor segments delivered…  With the core stage nearing completion, NASA recently gave the go-ahead for Northrop Grumman to ship the 10 solid rocket motor segments for the SLS boosters from their factory in Utah to the Kennedy Space Center. The motor segments were packed inside specially designed train cars for the cross-country journey by rail. The booster motors arrived at Kennedy on Monday. NASA plans to begin stacking the Artemis II solid rocket boosters inside the Vehicle Assembly Building in February. (submitted by Ken the Bin and Tfargo04)

Psyche launch delayed one week. NASA said Thursday the launch of the Psyche asteroid mission will be delayed one week until October 12. This will allow time for engineers to "complete verifications of the parameters used to control the Psyche spacecraft’s nitrogen cold gas thrusters," NASA wrote in a blog post. Unspecified parameters for these thrusters were recently adjusted in response to updated warmer temperature predictions, according to NASA, which offered little more detail on the issue.

Deadline October 25…  The Psyche mission has until October 25 to launch and still reach its destination—a metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche. The robotic spacecraft will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The $1.2 billion mission was originally supposed to launch in 2022, but NASA kept the spacecraft on the ground an extra year due to issues with software testing. The mission has a limited launch window in October because the spacecraft needs to depart Earth when Mars is in the proper position in its orbit around the Sun for the Psyche spacecraft to use the planet for a gravity assist in 2026, slingshotting the probe toward its destination in the asteroid belt. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)

Next three launches

September 29: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-19 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 22:39 UTC

October 5: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-21 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | TBD

October 6: Atlas V | Project Kuiper Protoflight | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 18:00 UTC