Rocket Report: Iran reaches orbit; Chinese firm achieves impressive landing test

Welcome to Edition 6.28 of the Rocket Report! There's a lot going on in the world of launch as always, but this week I want to take this space for a personal message. I have just announced the forthcoming publication of my second book, REENTRY, on the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft, and development of reusable launch. Full details here. I worked very hard to get the inside story.

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.

Europe seeks to support small launch companies. The European Space Agency and European Commission have selected five launch companies to participate in a new program to provide flight opportunities for new technologies, a sign of a greater role the European Union intends to play in launch, Space News reports. The effort seeks to stimulate demand for European launch services by allowing companies to compete for missions in the European Union’s In-Orbit Demonstration and Validation technology program. Proposals for the program's first phase are due to ESA at the end of February.

Getting a golden ticket ... The agency expects to select up to three companies for initial contracts with a combined value of 75 million euros ($82 million) to begin design work on those vehicles. Four of the companies selected for the "Flight Ticket Initiative" are startups working on small launch vehicles: Isar Aerospace, Orbex, PLD Space, and Rocket Factory Augsburg. None of them has yet conducted an orbital launch, but they expect to do so within the next two years. The fifth company was Arianespace, which will offer rideshare launches on its Vega C and Ariane 6 rockets. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Iran successfully launches Qaem 100 rocket. Iran said Saturday it had conducted a successful satellite launch into its highest orbit yet, the latest for a program the West fears improves Tehran’s ballistic missiles, the Associated Press reports. The Iranian Soraya satellite was placed in an orbit at some 750 kilometers (460 miles) above the Earth’s surface with its three-stage Qaem 100 rocket, the state-run IRNA news agency said. It did not immediately acknowledge what the satellite did, though telecommunications minister Isa Zarepour described the launch as having a 50-kilogram (110-pound) payload.

Qaem's first orbital flight ... The United States has previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and says its space program, like its nuclear activities, is for purely civilian purposes. This was the third launch of the Qaem rocket, which can loft up to 80 kg to low-Earth orbit. A suborbital test flight in 2022 was successful, but the first orbital attempt last March failed. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Chinese firm tests vertical landing. Chinese launch startup Landspace executed a first vertical takeoff and vertical landing with a test article Friday at a launch and recovery site at Jiuquan spaceport, Space News reports. The methane-liquid oxygen test article reached an altitude of around 350 meters during its roughly 60-second flight before setting down in a designated landing area. The landing had an accuracy of about 2.4 meters and a landing speed of less than 1 meter per second, the company said.

Part Starship, part Falcon 9 ... The test is part of the development of the stainless-steel Zhuque-3 rocket first announced in November 2023. The company is aiming for the first flight of Zhuque-3 next year. It is an ambitious project: The rocket is intended to have a payload capacity of 21 tons to low-Earth orbit in expendable mode, and 18.3 tons when the rocket is recovered downrange. If Zhuque-3 comes to pass—and these are promising early results—this would be the closest thing to a Falcon 9 rocket anyone has yet developed. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Alpha on-boarded for NRO missions. Firefly Aerospace announced Thursday that it was selected by the National Reconnaissance Office to serve as a launch provider with the Alpha rocket. The NRO on-ramped Alpha as part of its "streamlined" launch contract, which was created by the organization to tap into and support the commercial launch industry in the United States. The NRO has budgeted up to $700 million for these launches over a 10-year period.

Scaling up to meet demand ... Firefly is now eligible to compete for these mission task orders with Alpha, which can lift more than 1 metric ton to low-Earth orbit. Firefly’s next Alpha launch for NASA is on track for early 2024, the company said. "In order to support the increased demand for Alpha launches, we’ve doubled the size of our facilities, implemented automated carbon composite technologies, and fine-tuned our operations to rapidly produce, test, and launch in response to our customers’ urgent mission needs," said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)

French launch company raises $30 million. Latitude said this week that it had closed a $30 million Series B funding round to support the development of its Zephyr launch vehicle, European Spaceflight reports. Zephyr is a two-stage rocket designed to deploy payloads of up to 100 kilograms into low-Earth orbit. The company is targeting a 2025 debut flight for the rocket.

A little goes a long way ... The funding will be used to manufacture the first Zephyr rocket, establish the vehicle’s assembly line, complete electrical, propulsion, and fluidic systems and structural tests, bring the company’s test center online, and recruit new talent. (If $30 million really goes that far, good on them.) "Our investors’ continued support is a recognition of our 18 months of hard work, significant accomplishments, and expansion to become a market leader by the end of the decade," explained Latitude co-founder Stanislas Maximin. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)

European venture capital firm raises 100 million euros. Expansion Ventures announced the capital raise this week for a fund to support European New Space and New Air Mobility companies from seed rounds up to Series A and B funding rounds, European Spaceflight reports. Previously, the venture firm had invested 30 million euros into 13 startups, including launch startups Latitude and HyPrSpace.

Tracking lots of initiatives ... Expansion is targeting a final closing of 300 million euros by 2026 and plans to build a portfolio of around 40 companies. With the first tranche of funding secured, the fund will begin to invest in new companies and reinvest in its current portfolio of companies in subsequent funding rounds. The fund has a database of over 480 startups and actively follows 280. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Starliner on track for an April launch. NASA said it is working with Boeing toward a flight test no earlier than mid-April in which the Starliner spacecraft will carry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. "Teams have made significant progress in resolving technical issues identified during the agency’s flight certification process," the space agency said in a blog post. "Following a successful drop test earlier this month in which recent modifications to Starliner’s parachute system were validated, NASA and Boeing are working to perform final analysis of the test data and complete overall system certification ahead of Starliner’s first crewed flight."

That's a lot of tape ...  Boeing also completed the removal of the P213 tape that may have posed a flammability risk in certain environmental conditions. There were roughly 4,300 feet of the tape in the spacecraft. The mission will launch on an Atlas V rocket and is the first crewed mission on board Starliner. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will fly to the International Space Station and stay for one or two weeks. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

ArianeGroup preparing to ship Ariane 6 hardware. ArianeGroup is preparing to ship the Ariane 6 core stage and upper stage that will be used for the vehicle’s first flight to the launch site in French Guiana, European Spaceflight reports. Sometime next month, the hardware should be loaded onto the transport vessel Canopée for its 10-day transatlantic crossing to the port of Pariacabo in French Guiana.

A summer launch, maybe? ... The core and upper stages are expected to arrive in French Guiana in mid-February, after which integration activities can commence. The debut flight of Ariane 6 is currently expected to take place between mid-June and the end of July. While preparations do appear to be continuing smoothly, ArianeGroup has still not announced the results of its investigation into why an Ariane 6 upper stage test conducted in December was aborted early.

Why Space Shuttle commanders sometimes locked the hatch. In a feature, Ars explores the hush-hush program that NASA had that allowed shuttle commanders, at their discretion, to lock the vehicle's main hatch after reaching orbit. The article dives deep into the origins of the program, which dates to a 1985 space shuttle mission and a payload specialist—Taylor Wang—who grew distraught after his science experiment failed to activate. "Hey, if you guys don't give me a chance to repair my instrument, I'm not going back," Wang said.

It's an older story, but it checks out ... Though this is an old story, it still reverberates today, four decades on, with lasting consequences into the era of commercial spaceflight as more and more people fly into orbit. The Space Shuttle has been retired for 13 years, but the padlock remains in the fabric of US spaceflight with Crew Dragon. A commander's lock is an option for NASA's crews flying to the International Space Station on Crew Dragon, as well as private missions. As more people fly into orbit, this is probably an issue worth discussing in the spaceflight community.

Blue Origin mates New Glenn stages. On Wednesday, the launch company shared a photograph on its social media channels, including LinkedIn, showing both stages of the large New Glenn rocket. "The first and second stages of New Glenn’s test vehicle mate for the first time, enabling us to exercise our tooling and stage interfaces in preparation for our first launch later this year," the company stated.

To fly, or not to fly ... Obviously, it's awesome to see flight hardware out in the real world. Unfortunately, Blue Origin's postings did not state whether this "test vehicle" was intended simply for ground testing as a pathfinder or if it's hardware for the first test flight. The vehicle also doesn't have its seven BE-4 main engines, either. It would be great if Blue could specify these details, as many of us in the spaceflight community are eager for more information about this promising heavy-lift rocket. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Next three launches

January 27: Electron | Four Spire SSA Satellites | Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand | 06:15 UTC

January 28: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-38 | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | 23:05 UTC

January 29: Falcon 9 | Starlink 7-12 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 02:10 UTC