Rocket Report: Japan launches Moon mission; Ariane 6 fires up in Kourou

Welcome to Edition 6.10 of the Rocket Report! A Japanese spacecraft has joined the international flock of missions traveling to the Moon this year, but you'll need to practice patience on this one. It will take about four months for Japan's small lander to get into lunar orbit, then more weeks to align with the mission's target landing site. We're crossing our fingers this lander will see the same success as India's Chandrayaan 3 mission.

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.

India launches its first solar research satellite. Less than two weeks after landing its first mission on the Moon, India launched a solar observatory on September 2 toward an orbit nearly a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth around the L1 Lagrange point. This mission, named Aditya-L1, lifted off on India's workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and entered orbit around the Earth, where the spacecraft is expected to perform five maneuvers to escape Earth's gravity and head to its distant observation post.

Observing the Sun ... The Aditya-L1 spacecraft weighed about 3,260 pounds (1,480 kilograms) at launch and carries seven Indian-built payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere, and the Sun's corona, according to the Indian Space Research Organization. Four of these instruments will image the Sun, and the other three will measure fields and particles at the L1 location, providing data about solar flares and space weather. The launch of Aditya-L1 continues a successful year in space for India.

China launches rocket from ocean platform. A solid-fueled launcher owned by the Chinese startup Galactic Energy fired off from a mobile ocean-going barge in the Yellow Sea on September 5, Payload reports. This was Galactic Energy's first sea-based launch and the sixth time a Chinese rocket has launched satellites from an ocean spaceport. Galactic Energy's 62-foot-tall (19-meter) Ceres 1 rocket, capable of hauling 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of payload into low-Earth orbit, launched four small data relay satellites on this mission.

Busy times for Galactic Energy ... The sea launch continues a busy year for Galactic Energy, one of several quasi-commercial Chinese launch companies. This was the fourth launch of Galactic Energy's Ceres 1 rocket since July 22 and the company's fifth mission this year. Overall, China has launched 41 orbital-class rockets in 2023, trailing the United States but ahead of all other nations combined. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Virgin Galactic preps for third commercial mission. Virgin Galactic is preparing for its third commercial mission to carry a group of paying passengers to the edge of space. The flight window for this mission, called Galactic 03, opens Friday morning at Spaceport America in New Mexico. As of this writing Thursday, Virgin Galactic has not announced the names of any of the passengers, but it's expected to carry three customers, two pilots, and one of Virgin's astronaut trainers.

Long wait ... Virgin Galactic says this mission will carry the company's first group of "Founder astronauts" who purchased tickets for their suborbital spaceflight as early as 2005. "This community, comprised of approximately 800 individuals representing over 60 different countries, enjoys access to distinctive experiences designed to inspire and to enrich their spaceflight experience," Virgin Galactic says. This will continue what Virgin hopes will be a monthly cadence of commercial flights to the edge of space, roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) over the New Mexican desert.

Hypersonic missile test scrubbed. The US military called off a test of a hypersonic missile at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on Wednesday. The Pentagon didn't say much about the test, which was revealed by postings of airspace and maritime warning notices advising pilots and sailors to keep clear of the missile's expected flight path, Ars reports. The test launch was expected to be one of the final milestones before the US Army fields the nation's first ground-based hypersonic weapon, which is more maneuverable and more difficult for an enemy to track and destroy than a conventional ballistic missile.

Another delay ... The US military's development of hypersonic missiles has been stymied by delays and test failures. The Pentagon canceled an air-launched hypersonic missile program after problems during testing, while the hypersonic missile that was supposed to be test-launched from Cape Canaveral this week is designed to enter service with the Army and the Navy. The scrubbed test this week comes six months after the military called off the previous test launch attempt due to a battery problem. "As a result of pre-flight checks the test did not occur," a spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of Defense told Ars. "The Department was able to successfully collect data on the performance of the ground hardware and software that will inform the continued progress toward fielding offensive hypersonic weapons."

Rocket Lab announces next mission. Rocket Lab's next launch is scheduled for no earlier than September 19 from New Zealand, carrying a small radar observation satellite for Capella Space. This will be Rocket Lab's eighth satellite launch of the year with its Electron rocket. On its previous mission, Rocket Lab flew a reused Rutherford main engine for the first time, and the company plans to fly an Electron rocket later this year with a full complement of nine reused Rutherford main engines.

On pace for a record year ... Rocket Lab is on track to exceed its record number of launches in a year—nine—as the Electron remains the only regularly flying US commercial small-satellite launcher. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab's founder and CEO, said at the beginning of the year that the company was targeting 15 missions in 2023, although it wasn't clear whether that number includes suborbital Electron rocket missions. Regardless, Rocket Lab has established itself as the clear leader in the dedicated small launch segment. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Japan is heading to the Moon. Japan launched an H-IIA rocket Wednesday carrying an X-ray astronomy satellite and a small lunar lander, Space News reports. The Small Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, mission will test autonomous precision landing technology to reach a location on the near side of the Moon with an accuracy of just 100 meters, or a little more than 300 feet. This would be a significant improvement over the accuracy of past robotic lunar landings. SLIM launched into a highly elliptical orbit around Earth and will use its own propulsion to take a fuel-efficient route to the Moon over the next four months. The landing attempt will occur in early 2024.

H-IIA is back ... If you measure based on size and cost, the SLIM lander was just the secondary payload on the H-IIA rocket launch this week. Before sending SLIM into a higher orbit, the H-IIA rocket dropped off Japan's X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission in low-Earth orbit. The mission will study black holes, dark matter, and hot gas embedded within giant clusters of galaxies. XRISM is a replacement for Japan’s Hitomi space science observatory, which was lost following an attitude control failure a month after its launch in 2016, resulting in the spacecraft breaking apart. This launch was also the first Japanese rocket mission since the country's new H3 rocket failed on its inaugural test flight in March. Investigators blamed the H3 rocket failure on the upper stage engine, which is similar to the upper stage that flies on the H-IIA rocket. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

SpaceX breaks its record, again. SpaceX blew past one of its records over Labor Day weekend when the company launched a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Ars reports. This mission was SpaceX's 62nd launch of the year using its Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket, or 63rd if you count the test flight of the Starship mega-rocket in April. SpaceX has now launched 83 Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy missions over the past 12 months. Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, says the launch cadence will only ramp up over the coming months. "Aiming for 10 Falcon flights in a month by end of this year, then 12 per month next year," Musk posted on X, his social media platform. SpaceX has already strung together 10 Falcon launches within 30 days. That will soon become the norm if SpaceX achieves its goal.

Big missions still to come this year ... The rest of SpaceX's launch schedule for 2023 includes a second test flight of the company's Starship rocket, two more Falcon Heavy missions, and two resupply flights to the International Space Station. There are also Falcon 9 launches planned to deploy a commercial Moon lander for Intuitive Machines, and a new Missile Defense Agency mission with improved sensing technology to detect and track hypersonic missiles.

Ariane 6 fires up. The European Space Agency announced this week that the Ariane 6 rocket completed a four-second hot fire test of its main engine Tuesday in Kourou, French Guiana. The short-duration firing test of the rocket's hydrogen-fueled Vulcain 2.1 main engine sets the stage for a longer, nearly eight-minute ignition of the main engine on the launch pad in French Guiana next month. This short-duration test was originally supposed to happen in July, but officials called off the test after operators "ran out of time." ESA also announced a successful test-firing of the Ariane 6 rocket's reignitable Vinci upper-stage engine at a facility in Germany on September 1.

When will it fly? ... Engineers are performing launch pad hot fire tests in French Guiana using a test model of the Ariane 6 rocket, not the rocket that will actually fly to space when Ariane 6 debuts next year. Josef Aschbacher, ESA's director general, said this week he would wait to set a launch date for the Ariane 6 until the completion of these critical hot fire tests, Ars reports. If there are issues discovered with the rocket, its engine, or the ground systems, these will necessitate further delays. "There’s a lot of uncertainty still along the way," he said. "Please allow me to not speculate at this time." (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)

Relativity gets a test stand. Relativity Space is leasing an Apollo-era test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to support the development of its Terran R rocket, Space News reports. Under a seven-year lease, with an option to extend an additional 10 years, the launch company will use the A-2 test stand at Stennis to support vertical testing of the reusable first stage of its Terran R rocket, increasing the engine thrust it can support from 650,000 to 3.3 million pounds-force. This test stand was built in the 1960s to test the second stage of the Saturn V rocket, then used for space shuttle engine tests before conversion to test the J-2X engine intended for the Ares rockets for NASA's canceled Constellation program.

Going all-in at Stennis ... While other rocket companies, like SpaceX or Rocket Lab, often test their engines at privately owned facilities, Relativity has been testing engines for its Terran 1 and Terran R rockets at Stennis Space Center for several years. Relativity is the largest commercial tenant at the NASA-owned engine test facility in southern Mississippi, with a footprint totaling 298 acres. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

ULA targeting weekend launch. United Launch Alliance is poised to try again as soon as Saturday to launch its first Atlas V rocket in nearly 10 months, the longest drought in Atlas V launches in 20 years. The launch was previously scheduled for August 29, but ULA decided to roll the Atlas V rocket back to its hangar to take shelter from Hurricane Idalia. ULA returned the rocket to its launch pad Thursday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

Silent Barker ... The Atlas V rocket will launch a semi-classified mission named Silent Barker for the National Reconnaissance Office and the US Space Force. This mission, with multiple satellites, will detect and continually track other objects in geosynchronous orbit, a capability that military leaders have prioritized over the last decade. In that time, Pentagon officials say there has been an escalation in "cat and mouse" games between US satellites and those operated by China and Russia, with spacecraft routinely approaching one another in geosynchronous orbit, Ars reports.

Starship ready to fly. On Tuesday, SpaceX stacked its Starship rocket on top of a Super Heavy booster in South Texas, beginning final preparations for a second launch attempt of the massive vehicle, Ars reports. After the stacking operations were complete, SpaceX founder Elon Musk posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that "Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval." That caveat is a big one because the Federal Aviation Administration is still reviewing paperwork and data from SpaceX about the first launch attempt of Starship in April 2023, which ended a few minutes after liftoff due to engine problems and other issues with the booster. The FAA has been reviewing data from that accident, including the environmental implications at the launch site and the delayed activation of the rocket's flight termination system.

All hands on deck at Starbase ... Tuesday's stacking operations followed a period of frenetic activity at the South Texas launch site this summer to prepare the ground systems and rocket for a second launch attempt. During the first flight in April, the lack of a sound suppression system led to significant damage, including the rupture of concrete chunks from the launch pad that rained down debris for miles around the Starbase location in South Texas. SpaceX subsequently built and tested a new water deluge system and flame deflector beneath the Starship launch mount. Engineers also redesigned the staging mechanism between the Super Heavy booster and the Starship vehicle that flies on top of the rocket.

SLS rocket program "unaffordable." In a new report, the federal department that analyzes how efficiently US taxpayer dollars are spent, the Government Accountability Office, says NASA lacks transparency on the true costs of its Space Launch System rocket program, Ars reports. The new GAO report examines the billions of dollars spent by NASA on developing the massive rocket, which made a successful debut launch in late 2022 with the Artemis I mission. Surprisingly, as part of the reporting process, NASA officials admitted the rocket was too expensive to support its lunar exploration efforts as part of the Artemis program. "Senior NASA officials told GAO that at current cost levels, the SLS program is unaffordable," the new report states.

Can NASA really control costs? ... Critics have long pointed out the ballooning costs of the SLS rocket, which runs about $4.1 billion per mission for the initial batch of Artemis missions. However, NASA officials and congressional leaders have largely ignored this issue. You wouldn't be out of line to question NASA's ability to rein in these costs. For example, NASA recently said that it is working with the primary contractor of the SLS rocket's main engines, Aerojet, to reduce the cost of each engine by 30 percent, down to $70.5 million by the end of this decade. NASA's inspector general has questioned this claim. Even at $70.5 million, the cost per engine is several times more than what Blue Origin spends to manufacture its BE-4 engine, comparable in power and size to the RS-25 engine on the SLS rocket. And SpaceX is seeking to push the similarly powerful Raptor rocket engine costs even lower, to less than $1 million per engine.

Next three launches

September 8: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-14 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 23:56 UTC

September 9: Atlas V | Silent Barker | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 12:51 UTC

September 10: Long March 6A | Unknown payload | Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China | 04:40 UTC