Rocket Report: Signs of life from Blue Origin; SpaceX preps next Starship

Welcome to Edition 6.23 of the Rocket Report! In last week's report, my colleague Eric Berger mentioned what a year 2023 has been for rocket debuts. Several new launch vehicles flew for the first time this year, including SpaceX's Starship and Japan's H3. In this week's report, we have some news on some major rocket debuts planned for 2024, namely United Launch Alliance's Vulcan (now set for January) and Blue Origin's long-awaited New Glenn.

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.

Lost tanks will delay final Vega launch. Remember last week's report that Avio, the Italian rocket-maker, lost track of propellant tanks needed for the final launch of Europe's Vega rocket? Well, it looks like Avio and the European Space Agency have a plan to remedy the situation, but it's risky and will delay the Vega launch by several months, Space News reports. “Avio has confirmed to ESA that there is an issue with tanks for the last Vega flight,” said Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA director of space transportation, without addressing the earlier report that the tanks for Vega's upper stage were found in a landfill, crushed and unusable.

Hard to believe ... It's baffling how a space company could lose track of such critical pieces of rocket hardware. Tolker-Nielsen said managers considered two remedies to move forward with the final launch of the Vega rocket. The most likely solution is to use larger tanks for the upgraded Vega C rocket, which is replacing the base model of the light-class Vega launch vehicle. “It would necessitate some structural modification of the inner structure of the AVUM (upper stage),” Tolker-Nielsen said. “It seems a good, feasible solution.” That approach would support a Vega launch in September 2024. The payload for this mission is the Sentinel 2C remote sensing satellite, part of Europe's Copernicus Earth-monitoring constellation. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

China's methane-fueled rocket flies again. Chinese launch startup Landspace successfully sent satellites into orbit for the first time on December 8, Space News reports. This was the third flight of Landspace's Zhuque 2 rocket. Zhuque 2, also known as Vermillion Bird 2, failed to reach orbit on its first test flight, then became the first methane-fueled rocket to successfully achieve orbit on its second test flight in July. This launch of Zhuque 2 was the first to actually place working satellites into orbit. Onboard the rocket were three small satellites, including one from Spacety, a Chinese commercial satellite company sanctioned earlier this year by the US Treasury Department. The Zhuque 2 has the ability to put 1.5 metric tons of payload into a 500-kilometer orbit.

Avian evolution ... Established in 2015, Landspace is one of the most advanced companies in China's ecosystem of launch startups. Its first launch in 2018 used a solid-fueled rocket called Zhuque 1, but it failed before entering orbit. Now, the Zhuque 2 has made history as the first methane-fueled orbital rocket, and stands with a record of two successful flights in three attempts. Landspace's next step will be the Zhuque 3 rocket, a larger stainless steel launcher in roughly the same class as SpaceX's Falcon 9. The first stage of Landspace's next rocket will be reusable, and the company aims to launch it for the first time in 2025. (submitted by Egudahl, EllPeaTea, and Ken the Bin)

Northrop Grumman test-fires new solid rocket motor. A new solid rocket motor developed on a rapid timeline was recently test-fired by Northrop Grumman. This test is the first of an annual test series to demonstrate new technologies and materials for incorporation into the company's line of solid rocket motors, which are used by a range of rockets, including NASA's Space Launch System, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan, and the US military's next-generation Sentinel ICBM. This first Solid Motor Annual Rocket Technology Demonstrator, or SMART Demo, test-firing occurred at Northrop Grumman's facilities in Utah.

Moving faster and smarter ... According to Northrop Grumman, the SMART Demo successfully demonstrated several innovative technologies, alternate manufacturing materials and processes to reduce lead times by 75 percent. These include several advanced, long-lead tooling products as well as components of the solid rocket motor’s nozzle structure, constructed with additive manufacturing techniques. Other items tested on the solid rocket motor were a new solid propellant capable of operating at cold temperatures, and components from alternative suppliers that could address concerns stemming from supply chain problems. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

French launch consortium raises 35 million euros. A French-led consortium said Tuesday it has received funding for its project to develop an innovative low-cost small rocket called "Baguette One" and launch it into space, Le Monde reports. Most of the funding, which reportedly totals 35 million euros, comes from a French government fund called France 2030 that invests in innovative technologies. The consortium that won the funding is led by a French company called HyPrSpace, which is working on this program alongside the Italian defense firm Leonardo, French IT firm Thales, and CT Engineering.

Not a joke ... This isn't some designer French bread. It's a real rocket or at least a plan for one. Baguette One should take flight at the beginning of 2026 and aims to put small satellites up to 250 kilograms into orbit. HyPrSpace's main development focus to date has been on a hybrid rocket engine that combines both liquid and solid fuels and doesn't need a turbo pump, a complex and expensive piece of equipment. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

China has launched a secret spaceplane again. China has launched its top-secret military spaceplane for a third time, days after the US military's winged spacecraft was grounded for several weeks due to problems with its SpaceX rocket, Ars reports. Observers believe China's spaceplane looks much like the US military's X-37B, a reusable craft that Pentagon officials are similarly tight-lipped about. But there's a distinction in that US officials will publicly discuss, at least in broad terms, the purpose of the X-37B and release images of the spacecraft. Chinese state media described the top-secret mission only as a "reusable test spacecraft" when they confirmed the successful launch on Thursday.

No coincidence ... There's no suggestion that the US and Chinese spaceplanes are spying on one another because their orbits do not bring them close together. However, the supposed similarities between the US and Chinese military spaceplanes are hard to ignore. In fact, the US military hoped to launch its own X-37B spaceplane this week, but the flight was delayed by rocket problems. "These are the two of the most watched objects on orbit while they're on orbit," said Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force's top general, on Wednesday. "It's probably no coincidence that they're trying to match us in timing and sequence of this."

A big step for Relativity's Terran R rocket. Relativity Space announced this week that it had hot-fired its new methane-fueled Aeon R engine, the power source for its next-generation Terran R rocket. The 10-second test-firing at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi kicks off a fully integrated engine test campaign, according to Relativity. This hot-firing validated "component harmony" during the engine startup sequence and reached a targeted throttle setting of 70 percent. Next up will be longer-duration tests of the Aeon R engine over multiple years to fully qualify it for flight on the Terran R rocket.

HUGE ... Tim Ellis, Relativity's co-founder and CEO, posted on the social platform X this test was a "HUGE milestone" for the privately held company. The Aeon R has 11 times more thrust than the Aeon 1 engine that flew on the company's now-discontinued Terran 1 launcher. Thirteen of these methane/liquid oxygen Aeon R engines will power the Terran R's reusable first-stage booster, and a single vacuum-rated variant of the Aeon will fly on the Terran R's second stage. Relativity aims to launch the Terran R for the first time in 2026.

Polaris Dawn launch now targeted for April. The first flight of the Polaris program of private astronaut missions is now scheduled for no earlier than next April, a delay of nearly a year and a half from its original plan, Space News reports. In social media posts on December 9, Jared Isaacman, the billionaire backing the Polaris program and who is commanding the initial mission, called Polaris Dawn, identified several technical challenges responsible for the delay. First and foremost is SpaceX's development of an upgraded spacesuit to protect astronauts during a spacewalk outside the Dragon spacecraft on the Polaris Dawn mission.

New heights ... "It’s a development program with ambitious objectives," Isaacman wrote. "Schedule slips should be expected." To enable the spacewalk, which will be the first by commercial astronauts, SpaceX must depressurize the entire Dragon spacecraft, which was not part of the capsule's original design specification. Then after the spacewalk, Dragon's internal cabin will be repressurized with breathable air. There are also efforts to ensure Dragon's avionics can withstand the radiation environment up to 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) above Earth, the altitude goal for Polaris Dawn. This is higher than any astronauts have flown in Earth orbit since the 1960s. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Technical glitches delay Falcon Heavy launch. SpaceX and the US Space Force thought they were ready to launch the military's mysterious X-37B spaceplane this week, but ground teams in Florida need to roll the Falcon Heavy rocket back into its hangar for servicing, Ars reports. This is expected to push back the launch until at least late December, perhaps longer. SpaceX and Space Force officials have not divulged details about the problems causing the delay. "I hope we can get it off before the end of the year," said Col. James Horne, deputy director of the Space Force's Assured Access to Space directorate.

Downstream missions ... When it's ready to fly, the Falcon Heavy launch with the military's X-37B spaceplane will likely get high priority on SpaceX's launch schedule. Depending on how long it's delayed, this military launch could affect several SpaceX missions scheduled to fly in January. Most notably, a Falcon 9 rocket is slated to lift off from the same launch pad with the first commercial Moon lander from Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based company contracted to deliver scientific payloads to the lunar surface for NASA. It takes several weeks to reconfigure Launch Complex 39A between Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 launches, so there's a chance the IM-1 lander mission could miss its January 12-16 launch window. There are only a few days per month when the IM-1 mission can launch to ensure it can reach its lunar landing site in daylight.

Vulcan slips until January. United Launch Alliance will not see the debut of its next-generation Vulcan rocket in 2023, as previously planned, Ars reports. The launch company's chief executive, Tory Bruno, announced the delay on the social media site X on Sunday. United Launch Alliance had been working toward a debut flight of the heavy-lift booster on Christmas Eve from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. But a fueling test of the entire Vulcan rocket couldn't be completed earlier this month due to some ground system issues, and ULA wanted to fully accomplish this test before moving forward with a launch attempt.

January 8… Peregrine is the rocket's primary payload, a lunar lander built by Astrobotic that is intended to deliver scientific experiments for NASA and other payloads to the Moon. It has specific launch windows to reach the Moon and attempt a landing during ideal lighting conditions. The next launch opportunity after December 24–26 opens on January 8, and this is the new target launch date for the debut of Vulcan. In another update this week, Bruno posted on X that a follow-up fueling test on Tuesday "went great. The critical events we wanted to demonstrate happened nominally and on the timeline." This clears the way for ULA to mount the Peregrine lander on the rocket and complete final launch preps over the holidays.

Blue Origin doubles down on New Glenn. For the first time, it's starting to feel like Jeff Bezos's space company, Blue Origin, might have a shot at launching its long-delayed New Glenn rocket within the next 12 months, Ars reports. "We’re now ready to really start amping things up a bit," said Lars Hoffman, Blue Origin's vice president of government sales, at a military conference this week. "We’ll start launching New Glenn next year." New Glenn was originally slated to fly in 2020, but is now running at least four years late. Recently, we've seen a few signs of tangible progress on the heavy-lift rocket, with appearances of a large, apparently completed piece of the rocket's first stage outside Blue Origin's factory in Florida. NASA is also looking to launch a low-cost Mars mission on New Glenn, likely on its inaugural flight next year.

Can they go faster?… In a recent interview with computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman, Bezos was candid in saying that Blue Origin "needs to be much faster." The company hasn't launched a rocket in 15 months but plans to resume flights of its New Shepard suborbital booster next week. The orbital-class New Glenn, though, is in a different league. Bezos said he's put a sharper focus on Blue Origin since leaving his job as CEO of Amazon. "I wanted to come in, and Blue Origin needs me right now," Bezos told Fridman. "Adding some energy, some sense of urgency. We need to move much faster. And we're going to."

SpaceX targeting early next year for next Starship launch. SpaceX is preparing to launch the third test flight of its Starship/Super Heavy rocket from Texas early next year, myRGV.com reports. This will follow two Starship test flights in April and November of this year. "It would be great if we were in the first quarter, definitely," said Kathy Lueders, SpaceX's general manager for the Starbase launch site near Brownsville, Texas. "Elon (Musk) obviously would probably say the end of December, but I don’t think we’ll get there.” Lueders said SpaceX is still assessing what caused the flight termination system to activate and blow up the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage on the November 18 launch.

Testing new things… Despite not reaching its planned trajectory, Starship launch last month was a resounding success for SpaceX, demonstrating big improvements in engine reliability and proving a daring "hot staging" maneuver to separate the Super Heavy booster from the Starship upper stage. With those milestones now behind them, SpaceX will focus on testing other parts of Starship, including in-orbit propellant transfer and recovery of the first-stage booster. “This next year’s going to be really, really critical for us to continue to test out and being able to kind of move the Starship into its next level of being able to accomplish its mission," Lueders said.

Next three launches

December 15: Electron | QPS-SAR-5 | Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand | 04:00 UTC

December 15: Falcon 9 | Starlink 7-9 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 05:04 UTC

December 15: Long March 5 | Unknown Payload | Wenchang Space Launch Site, China | 13:45 UTC