Rocket Report: SLS boosters may expire in December; Blue Origin delivers the BE-4s

"We’re eager to get the helicopter back out there and advance our rocket reusability."

Welcome to Edition 5.16 of the Rocket Report! If you're counting, there are now fewer than 60 days until the end of 2022. How many more US rockets will make their debut before the end of the year? SLS? Terran 1? Super Heavy? RS1? None of the above? You didn't ask, but my over/under would be 1.5 of the above, and that may be a tad optimistic.

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.

Rocket Lab to attempt booster recovery again. The US-based rocket company says it will make a second mid-air recovery attempt of an Electron booster during the Friday launch of a Swedish scientific satellite, Space News reports. This "Catch Me If You Can" mission is scheduled to launch November 4 at 1:15 pm ET (17:15 UTC) from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The launch will be Rocket Lab's second attempt to recover the Electron’s first stage, descending under a parachute, using a helicopter.

Happy hunting! ... In the first attempt May 2, a hook hanging from the helicopter grabbed the parachute, but the pilot released it moments later after noticing what the company called "different load characteristics than what we’ve experienced in testing." The stage instead splashed down and was recovered by a boat. "Our first helicopter catch only a few months ago proved we can do what we set out to do with Electron, and we’re eager to get the helicopter back out there and advance our rocket reusability even further by bringing back a dry stage for the first time," Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a statement about the upcoming launch. (submitted by Ken the Bin and Tfargo04)

Firefly seeking additional capital. Fresh off of putting its first Alpha rocket into orbit, Firefly Aerospace is seeking to raise as much as $300 million in a private fundraising round, Reuters reports. The Texas-based company was valued at more than $1 billion when private equity firm AE Industrial Partners became its controlling shareholder in March, but it has not set a valuation for this round.

How much money is out there? ... The new funding would be used to help complete construction of manufacturing facilities for Firefly's Alpha rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and accelerate development of a medium-lift rocket the company plans to build with Northrop Grumman. Given the challenges of raising new capital for space-based companies in the current environment, it will be interesting to see how much Firefly can tap into. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Residents fight back against Canadian engine tests. Trent Hills, a municipality in Ontario about halfway between Toronto and Ottawa, has asked the Canadian launch company SpaceRyde to cease rocket engine testing. "Trent Hills has been in receipt of many inquiries, concerns and complaints pertaining to rocket engine testing taking place in the rural area at a site on County Road 29," Trent Hills Now reported. On October 7, the local government asked SpaceRyde to voluntarily cease testing.

Maybe they can work it out? ... The company has until later this month to respond. Some local residents want nothing to do with SpaceRyde, which is aiming to develop a rocket to be launched from a balloon. The municipality, however, said it would be willing to work with the rocket company: "If there remains a desire to continue the use, the Municipality has a range of options both to engage with the site owner and occupier and to address the public’s concerns." (submitted by JC)

German launch provider inks OTV deal ... Exotrail has signed a contract with German launch vehicle developer Isar Aerospace for multiple launches over the next several years, Space News reports. Exotrail, a French company developing orbital transfer vehicles, said its "spacevan" will fly on Isar’s Spectrum rocket on multiple missions between 2024 and 2029. The launches will take place from Andøya, Norway, and Kourou, French Guiana. The companies did not disclose a specific number of launches or the value of the agreement.

Bespoke and competitive access ... Exotrail will use the launches for a service it calls spacedrop for delivering smallsats to their desired orbits. That uses the spacevan orbital transfer vehicle the company is developing, which in turn uses electric propulsion systems and software the company currently offers to other customers. "The contract with Isar Aerospace enables us to consolidate our spacedrop service by offering more launch opportunities to customers looking for bespoke and competitive access to LEO and GEO orbits,” Jean-Luc Maria, chief executive of Exotrail, said. It's notable that a French company is turning to a German launch provider. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Orbex to build Scottish launch site. British small launch company Orbex announced Tuesday that it secured agreements to begin construction of a launch site in northern Scotland for its rocket that will allow a first launch by the end of 2023. Orbex said it signed a lease with Scottish development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise for a 10-acre site in the northwestern part of Sutherland county in northern Scotland, Space News reports.

That's a long lease ... The lease is for 50 years with an option for an additional 25 years. The company will build a facility at the site for launching its Prime small launch vehicle it is developing, hosting up to 12 launches per year. Construction of the site will begin “imminently,” Chris Larmour, chief executive of Orbex, told the publication. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Starliner launch slips to April. NASA announced Thursday that the first crewed launch of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, atop an Atlas V rocket, will now take place no earlier than April 2023. "The date adjustment deconflicts visiting spacecraft traffic at the space station as NASA and Boeing work together to achieve flight readiness," NASA said in a blog post. Starliner completed its second largely successful uncrewed flight test in May 2022. Earlier, NASA had been targeting a February 2023 launch date.

Dates still not certain ... NASA also confirmed that the Fall 2023 crew rotation flight to the International Space Station would take place on board a Crew Dragon. This Crew-7 date very likely pushes the Starliner-1 crew mission, Boeing's first long-duration operational ISS mission, into 2024. Regarding the crew flight test, sources said the April target for Starliner's flight test is possible but far from certain. The vehicle's launch could slip into summer of next year. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

ESA moves ahead with carbon-fiber upper stage. The European Space Agency has agreed to pay 50 million euros to ArianeGroup to continue development of the Phoebus upper-stage demonstrator. The goal is to develop a prototype upper stage that has significantly less mass because it is made from lightweight carbon fiber. This carbon fiber will replace the metallic structure of cryogenic fuel tanks and could eventually fly as a second stage on the Ariane 6 rocket.

Less mass on the upper stage means more payload ... “Phoebus will pave the way towards our new ‘Black Upper Stage’ for Ariane 6 and other future launchers, and also help introduce cryogenic composite and liquid hydrogen technologies to the aeronautics sector,” said Karl-Heinz Servos, ArianeGroup head of industry, in a news release. ArianeGroup said it hopes to construct and test a full-scale demonstrator by the end of 2025. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)

Falcon Heavy returns to flight. After a 40-month absence, the Falcon Heavy rocket returned to flight on Tuesday morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. For the time being, the Falcon Heavy remains the world's most powerful operational rocket, although that could soon change if NASA's Space Launch System or SpaceX's Starship reach orbit in the coming weeks. In a long report, Ars investigates why it has been more than three years since the Falcon Heavy last flew and whether that means the rocket has been a failure.

Change in pace coming ... The dearth of recent launches is partly due to a lack of demand but is mostly because of payload readiness. The USSF-44 mission that launched Tuesday morning was originally scheduled for December 2020. Another Space Force mission on the Falcon Heavy, USSF-52, was originally supposed to fly in October 2021. NASA's Psyche asteroid mission was supposed to fly in September but was also delayed after the payload was not ready. Now the rocket's cadence should increase significantly. As many as eight to 10 flights of the large rocket could occur between now and the end of 2024, including some high-profile missions for the US government, notably NASA's $4 billion Europa Clipper spacecraft due to launch in October 2024.

Tory gets his engines. It has finally happened—Blue Origin said this week it delivered a pair of flight-ready BE-4 rocket engines to United Launch Alliance for its Vulcan rocket. "We are very pleased to receive the first two engines for Vulcan’s inaugural flight," said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO. "Development of this new engine is complete, and the performance of the engine is outstanding. It has been a great team effort working together with our partners at Blue Origin and we can’t wait to see Vulcan fly."

A beastly pair ... Each BE-4 engine provides 550,000 pounds of thrust and has completed an extensive development program. Despite the delay, and it is reasonable to say these engines are three or even four years late, Blue Origin can take pride in what, by all accounts, appears to be a quality aerospace product. It is not easy to build engines for ULA or the US Space Force, which have exacting standards. Hopefully, we will see this pair of engines take flight during the first half of 2023! (submitted by Ken the Bin)

China's Long March 5B to reenter soon. As it acquires more orbital data, the nonprofit Aerospace Corporation is continuing to update its entry forecast for the core stage of China's Long March 5B rocket. As of Thursday morning, it predicted a reentry of 1:46 pm ET Friday (17:56 UTC), plus or minus six hours. This Long March 5B rocket launched the 23-ton Mengtian module to the Chinese Tiangong Space Station on Monday, and it has no capacity to perform a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere, Ars reports.

Look out below ... Based on the core stage's orbit, it has the potential to affect landmasses where about 88 percent of the world's population lives, according to The Aerospace Corporation. The chance of a casualty—defined as a death or injury—is between 1-in-230 and 1-in-1,000. However, one's individual risk from falling Chinese rocket debris is not really the point, officials from The Aerospace Corporation said. Space agencies and companies in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere follow "norms" of behavior for much lower risks. For example, the acceptable risk of casualty is 1-in-10,000 from a human-made object reentering from space.

SpaceX is addressing NASA's Starship concerns. A senior NASA official said this week that SpaceX has done "very well" in working toward the development of a vehicle to land humans on the surface of the Moon, taking steps to address two of the space agency's biggest concerns, Ars reports. After selecting Starship to serve as the Human Landing System for its Artemis Moon missions, two of the space agency's biggest technological development concerns were the new Raptor rocket engine and the transfer and storage of liquid oxygen and methane propellant in orbit, said Mark Kirasich, a NASA deputy associate administrator.

An engine a day ... Kirasich said SpaceX has moved rapidly on Raptor engine development and is now building one Raptor 2 engine every day. "They build these things very fast," Kirasich said. "Their goal was seven engines a week, and they hit that about a quarter ago. So they are now building seven engines a week." SpaceX is also working toward demonstrations of the storage and transfer of cryogenic propellants in space—the liquid oxygen and methane used by Starship to fly to and land on other worlds.

NASA says SLS rocket boosters good for a bit longer. On Thursday, NASA officials held a teleconference with space reporters and discussed the planned rollout of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft early on Friday morning. The space agency remains on track for an Artemis I launch attempt on November 14, shortly after midnight, said Jim Free, who leads exploration systems development for NASA. This will be the third attempt to launch the SLS rocket on its debut flight. Free said the launch team is confident, but acknowledged there are "unknown unknowns" that may crop up during the countdown.

December deadline? ... One of the big questions about the rocket concerns the lifetime of its massive solid rocket boosters, which have now been stacked for nearly two years. NASA's Cliff Lanham, who oversees ground systems, said NASA's initial analysis found that the rocket boosters provided by Northrop Grumman had a lifetime of one year. However, a subsequent analysis of their health cleared one through December 9, 2022, the other through December 14. NASA could probably extend their life further with additional analysis, Free adds. But this will be a source of concern if the Artemis I mission has to be delayed again.

Next three launches

Nov. 4: Electron | "Catch Me If You Can" | Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand | 17:15 UTC

Nov. 5: Long March 3B | ChinaSat 19 | Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China | 11:00 UTC

Nov. 6: Antares 230+ | CRS NG-18 | Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia | 10:50 UTC

Rocket Report: SLS boosters may expire in December; Blue Origin delivers the BE-4s

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Rocket Report: SLS boosters may expire in December; Blue Origin delivers the BE-4s

"We’re eager to get the helicopter back out there and advance our rocket reusability."

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