Rocket Report: Space Force to pick three; Pythom strikes back

Welcome to Edition 6.03 of the Rocket Report! Today marks the 54th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. For decades this has meant a time to reflect on the glories of the past. But finally, with the Artemis Program, we can also look forward with hope about what is coming. That is something I am thankful for.

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 recovers another booster. The launch company's Electron rocket boosted seven satellites for NASA, Space Flight Laboratory, and Spire Global on Tuesday. This was Rocket Lab's 39th launch overall, and after the primary mission Electron's first stage completed a successful ocean splashdown. Rocket Lab’s recovery team rendezvoused with the stage on the water, successfully bringing it onto a vessel using a specially designed capture cradle, the company said.

Soon to go for forty ... The stage was then moved to Rocket Lab’s production complex in New Zealand for analysis to inform future recovery missions and, eventually, re-flight of an Electron. "With this mission we’ve made big strides toward reusability with Electron and we are now closer than ever to relaunching a booster for the first time," said Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck. The company is working toward its 40th launch before the end of July, with a tentative date of July 28. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Japanese rocket engine explodes in test. An engine being developed for use in the Epsilon S small rocket exploded last Friday at a testing facility in Akita Prefecture, the Japan Times reports. The incident occurred about one minute after the ground test for the second-stage engine began. The engine suddenly spat flames and exploded with a roar, spewing a massive plume of white smoke into the air that turned black as the inferno continued.

A RUD with a thud ... JAXA is developing the Epsilon S as the successor to the current solid-fueled Epsilon series to enhance the country’s competitiveness in the growing satellite launch market. Obviously, this is a setback. Moreover, it comes a few months after a second-stage engine issue with the country's new H3 rocket forced it to self-destruct. So, not a great moment for second-stage engines in Japan. (submitted by BilTheGalacticHero and tsunam)

Europe's boost program having an impact. In order to help stimulate commercial space in Europe, the European Space Agency launched the Boost! program in 2019 to provide relatively small grants to companies in the area of launch, in-space services, and other disciplines. A few years on, the European Spaceflight newsletter assessed the impact that Boost! has had on the industry. The short answer is: It's been a pretty positive one. "I initially chastised ESA for not doing enough, for not being more daring in providing larger tranches of funding to the companies," the author of the newsletter, Andrew Parsonson, states.

But opinions can change ... The newsletter continues: "In November 2022, ESA revealed that for every euro invested by the agency as part of the Boost! program, the recipient companies managed to attract five euros from private actors. That would mean that the €39.79 million in co-funding awarded by ESA attracted €198.95 million in private investment in the European space industry. That’s a pretty incredible statistic. And that success ensured that at the 2022 ministerial meeting more funding was allocated for the program and more member states signed on to benefit from it."

Canadian space agency interested in suborbital launches. The Canadian Space Agency is considering using suborbital flights for Canadian scientists and biomedical inventors, spaceQ reports. The agency recently released an announcement of opportunity for flights on providers such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. Each flight would include roughly four minutes of microgravity, or 12 times the 20 seconds of availability per cycle on a typical parabolic flight.

Fulfilling a mandate ... "One of our mandates is to try to provide access to space to Canada," the space agency's Mathieu Caron, director of astronauts, life sciences, and space medicine, told the publication. Acknowledging that the suborbital flights would be “a new direction,” he said the announcement of opportunity would help determine if proceeding in that direction would effectively meet the mandate. This would certainly be a nice boost for the suborbital space tourism industry if it comes to pass. (submitted by Joey-SIVB)

Pythom Space is back, baby. In a new podcast, helpfully translated into English by Warp News, the co-founders of Pythom Space say they are planning to launch their rockets from both the United States as well as Europe. The company is considering Esrange, outside Kiruna in northern Sweden, as well as the Scottish SaxaVord Spaceport. But first, of course, Pythom Space needs a functioning rocket.

They're working on that ... With a small team of just 10 people at Pythom, the co-founders say they are working at a high pace. Over the past year, they have developed most of the rocket and the propulsion system. In the spring, they received a significant investment and also acquired their own test pad at an old airfield in the Nevada desert, near Area 51, Tonopah Test Range. There, they say, they will conduct longer engine tests and then assemble everything and start launching and landing rockets. I have my (very serious and well-founded) doubts about that. (submitted by MS)

UK students build a rocket engine. Students at the University of Sheffield have built and successfully tested an additively manufactured liquid rocket engine, said to be the most powerful student-built engine of its type, Metal AM reports. The students built the engine over the past two years as part of the University of Sheffield’s Space Initiative, which is aimed at helping STEM students apply their skills to tackle challenges in the space industry and develop careers in the field.

Five big seconds ... Their goal is to one day use the engine to power their own rockets to the edge of space and become the first UK student-led team to cross the Kármán line, which borders Earth’s atmosphere 100 km above sea level. Engineering graduate and former Project Manager Dana Arabiyat said, "Two years and countless hours of hard work later, the successful hot-fire of our engine got us jumping for the most unforgettable five seconds of our lives!" (submitted by Tfargo04)

India launches lunar lander. India took the first step last Friday toward its second attempt to land on the Moon with the launch of its Chandrayaan-3 mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the southeastern part of the country. The spacecraft launched on the LVM-3 rocket, the heaviest lift vehicle in India's fleet, Ars reports. Liftoff came nearly three years to the date of the launch of the Chandrayaan-2 mission to the Moon.

Landing attempt next month ... That launch successfully placed a spacecraft into lunar orbit, but a landing attempt was unsuccessful. The Indian space agency, ISRO, lost communication with its Vikram lander at about 2 km above the lunar surface due to a software problem. It subsequently crashed into the Moon. So the Indian space agency decided to learn from its mistakes and try again. Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled to reach lunar orbit on August 5, setting the stage for a landing attempt as early as August 23. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Space Force brings on third large launch provider. The US Space Force, long content with using just one or two contractors to carry the military’s most vital satellites into orbit, has announced it will seek a third provider for national security launch services in its next multibillion-dollar round of rocket procurement, Ars reports in a deep dive on the topic. This is good news for Blue Origin, which has long sought to join the ranks of United Launch Alliance and SpaceX as the military’s preferred launch contractors.

End-of-the-year deadline ... Reflecting the change, the military’s Space Systems Command last week released a new draft of its request proposals for the upcoming launch services competition known as “National Security Space Launch Phase 3,” which covers five years of launch orders beginning in fiscal year 2025, plus a follow-on five-year option period. The Space Force wants to release the final request for proposals for the Phase 3 launch procurement by September, with industry proposals due in December. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

About Vulcan's upper stage failure. United Launch Alliance has identified the root cause of a failure that destroyed the upper stage of its Vulcan rocket in late March, Ars reports. According to the company's chief executive, Tory Bruno, the Centaur V upper stage failed due to higher-than-anticipated stress near the top of the liquid hydrogen propellant tank and slightly weaker welding. Bruno said United Launch Alliance is working toward flying the heavy-lift Vulcan rocket on its debut mission during the fourth quarter of this year.

Tests and repairs ... To understand the nature of the failure, Bruno said the company ran a high-fidelity model of the loads and stresses on the hydrogen dome in this location and found there were unexpectedly higher loads there. Additionally, the team analyzed the strength of the welds nearby and found they were not as high as previously assessed. Bruno said performing the final qualification tests for the Centaur V anomaly and modifying the flight version of the tank are the final two steps needed before Vulcan can launch.

Next three launches

July 22: Ceres-1 | Lemon Tree | Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China | 05:15 UTC

July 22: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-6 | Cape Canaveral, Fla. | 11:31 UTC

July 23: Long March 2D | Unspecified payload | Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China | 03:00 UTC