Rocket Report: Long March 6A breaks apart after launch; SLS soars in debut

Welcome to Edition 5.18 of the Rocket Report! What a year in spaceflight this has been. At the end of 2021, a European rocket put the James Webb Space Telescope successfully into space, and 11 months later NASA's Space Launch System performed an on-target launch. This brings to a close two massive development projects I have tracked for much of my space writing career, and it is so nice that both have a happy ending.

Please note that there will be no newsletter next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

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.

Spaceport Cornwall gets operator's license. Spaceport Cornwall will be allowed to host the United Kingdom's first space launch after it was granted an operating license by the Civil Aviation Authority, BBC reports. This was a necessary step in the regulatory process, but not the final one, before Virgin Orbit can fly its Cosmic Girl aircraft from England and send its LauncherOne rocket into orbit.

One step closer to launch ... The license allows Virgin Orbit to undertake mission readiness preparations and conduct tests onsite. The company does not yet have a launch license, but the aviation authority said it was in "very advanced stages" of granting the launch and range licenses. "So we are still looking at the end of November or beginning of December, as long as all the tech is ready to go," said Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Electron-launched smallsat reaches the Moon. After a journey of nearly five months, taking it far beyond the Moon and back, the little CAPSTONE spacecraft has successfully entered into lunar orbit, Ars reports. The spacecraft launched at the end of June on an Electron rocket from New Zealand. Notably, Electron is the smallest rocket to launch a payload to the Moon, and its manufacturer, Rocket Lab, stressed the capabilities of the booster and its Photon upper stage to the maximum to send CAPSTONE on its long journey to the Moon. This was Rocket Lab's first deep space mission.

Special delivery to a special orbit ... This spacecraft was built by Advanced Space and found its way into an important orbit for NASA: a near-rectilinear halo orbit. It is special because this orbit is really stable, requiring just a tiny amount of propellant to hold position. At its closest point to the Moon, this roughly week-long orbit passes within 3,000 km of the lunar surface, and at other points, it is 70,000 km away. NASA plans to build a small space station, called the Lunar Gateway, here later this decade.

SpaceRyde inks launch contract. Canadian launch startup SpaceRyde revealed plans this week to launch four private commercial flights for ISILaunch, Space News reports. Customers will pay $250,000 to launch 25 kg payloads on SpaceRyde’s Ryder rocket and Flying Spider balloon. The flights are scheduled to begin in 2024. For these SpaceRyde flights, ISILaunch will offer customization including scheduling weeks prior to launch, access to custom orbits, and various fairing configurations.

Filling a gap? ... "SpaceRyde is excited to join ISILaunch’s portfolio of heritage launch partners," Negar Feher, SpaceRyde chief revenue officer, said in a statement. "A gap exists for fast and reliable access to custom orbits in space at a competitive price. These four launches are only the beginning." SpaceRyde, founded in 2018, is developing the Rocket Network space transportation infrastructure to ferry cargo continuously between Earth, the Moon, and destinations in between. This will be a cool launch technology if it comes together. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

RFA to test engines closer to home. Rocket Factory Augsburg has struck an agreement with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to test its Helix engines at the Institute of Space Propulsion in Lam­pold­shausen, Payload reports. RFA currently does all its engine testing at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden. However, Lam­pold­shausen is significantly closer to the company’s manufacturing facility in Augsburg.

Access to facility in a year? ... RFA will use both Esrange and Lam­pold­shausen to augment its capacity. All integrated stage tests will still be conducted at Esrange. Before construction of the new test stand can commence, DLR must first finish building support infrastructure. DLR expects to complete that by mid-2023, while RFA targets the back half of the year to cut the ribbon on its new test stand. All of this seems slightly notional, as Payload notes that RFA is currently not fully funded up to a debut flight of its RFA ONE rocket. (submitted by Ken the Bin)