Rocket Report: Starbase will expand into state park; another Japanese rocket

Welcome to Edition 6.34 of the Rocket Report! It's Starship season again. Yes, SpaceX appears to be about a week away from launching the third full-scale Starship test flight from the company's Starbase site in South Texas, pending final regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Ars will be there. SpaceX plans to build a second Starship launch pad at Starbase, and the company's footprint there is also about to get a little bigger, with the expected acquisition of 43 acres of Texas state park land.

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.

Astra's founders take the company private. Astra's three-year run as a public company is over. Chris Kemp and Adam London, Astra's co-founders, are taking the company private after a string of rocket failures and funding shortfalls, Ars reports. Kemp and London bought the company for 50 cents a share. Astra's board approved the transaction, the company announced Thursday, as the only alternative to bankruptcy. Kemp and London founded Astra in 2016. After emerging from stealth mode in 2020, Astra launched its light-class launcher, called Rocket 3, seven times, but five of those flights were failures. Astra went public via a special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC) in 2021, reaching a valuation of more than $2 billion. Today, its market cap sits at approximately $13 million.

What's next for Astra? ... Where Astra goes from here is anyone's guess. The company abandoned its unreliable Rocket 3 vehicle in 2022 to focus on the larger Rocket 4 vehicle. But Rocket 4 is likely months or years from the launch pad. It faces stiff competition not just from established small launch players such as Rocket Lab and Firefly but also from new entrants as well, including ABL Space and Stoke Space. Additionally, all of these small launch companies have been undercut in price by SpaceX's Transporter missions, which launch dozens of satellites at a time on the Falcon 9 booster. Additionally, Astra's spacecraft engine business—acquired previously from Apollo Fusion—may or may not be profitable now, but there are questions about its long-term viability as well.

Virgin Galactic is retiring its only operational spaceship. Over the last year, Virgin Galactic has proven it has the technical acumen to pull off monthly flights of its VSS Unity rocket plane, each carrying six people on a suborbital climb to the edge of space. But VSS Unity has never been profitable. It costs too much and takes too much time to reconfigure between flights. Virgin Galactic plans to fly the suborbital spaceship one more time before taking a hiatus from flight operations, Ars reports. This, along with layoffs announced last year, will allow the company to preserve cash while focusing on the development of a new generation of rocket planes, called Delta-class ships, designed to fly more often and with more people. Michael Colglazier, Virgin Galactic's president and CEO, says the first of the Delta ships is on track to begin ground and flight testing next year, with commercial service targeted for 2026 based out of Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Bigger and faster... The Delta ships will each carry six customers in the spacecraft's pressurized passenger cabin, compared to a maximum of four passengers on each VSS Unity flight. Virgin Galactic's goal is to fly each Delta ship eight times per month, and the company will do this by eliminating many of the inspections required between each VSS Unity flight. The company is building a Delta ship structural test article to put through extensive checks on the ground, validating component life and cycle limits for major components of the vehicle. This will give engineers enough confidence to forego many inspections, according to Mike Moses, president of Virgin Galactic's spaceline operations. Virgin Galactic has nearly $1 billion in cash or cash equivalents on its balance sheet, so it's not in any immediate financial trouble. But the company reported just $7 million in revenue last year, with a net loss of $502 million. So, there's an obvious motivation to make a change.

A new Japanese rocket will launch this weekend. A privately held Japanese company named Space One is set to shoot for orbit with the first flight of its Kairos rocket Friday night (US time), News on Japan reports. Space One will attempt to become the first Japanese private company to launch a rocket into orbit. Japan's existing launch vehicles, like the H-IIA, the H3, and the Epsilon, were developed with funding from the Japanese space agency. But there is some involvement from the Japanese government on this flight. The Kairos rocket will launch with a small "quick response" spacecraft for the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, which is responsible for Japan's fleet of spy satellites. Kairos, which is the Ancient Greek word for "timeliness," is made up of three solid-fueled stages and a liquid-fueled upper stage. It can place a payload of up to 550 pounds (250 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit.

Winning hearts and minds... The Kairos rocket will take off from Space One's Space Port Kii, located on a south-facing peninsula on the main Japanese island of Honshu. This new launch site is hundreds of miles away from Japan's existing spaceports. Local businesses see the arrival of the space industry in this remote part of Japan as a marketing opportunity. A local confectionery store, not wanting to miss the opportunity to attract visitors, is selling manju shaped like rockets. There are two paid viewing areas to watch the launch, and a total of 5,000 seats sold out in just two days, according to News on Japan. (submitted by tsunam)

UK spaceport project to get 10 million pounds from government. The UK government has pledged 10 million pounds in funding to SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland, European Spaceflight reports. This funding is sorely needed for SaxaVord, which slowed construction last year after its developer ran into financial trouble. In the last couple of months, SaxaVord raised enough money to resume payments to the contractors building the launch site. The UK government's pledge of 10 million pounds for SaxaVord apparently is not quite a done deal. The UK's science minister posted on X that the funding was "subject to due diligence." SaxaVord will eventually have three launch pads, one of which has been dedicated to German launch startup Rocket Factory Augsburg. This company's rocket, RFA ONE, is expected to be the first orbital launch from SaxaVord later this year.

The UK spaceport scene... The UK government, local entities, and private industry are making a pretty serious effort to bring orbital launches to the British Isles. Spaceport Cornwall became the first UK facility to host an orbital attempt last year with the failed launch of Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket, which was released from a carrier jet that took off from Cornwall. There are several vertical launch spaceports under construction or in the concept development phase. SaxaVord appears to be among those closest to reality, along with Sutherland spaceport, also in Scotland, to be used by the UK launch startup Orbex Space. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Another crew heads for the ISS. SpaceX launched three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station on Sunday night, Ars reports. This was SpaceX's eighth fully operational crew launch for NASA, and the 13th crew flight of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft overall. Business is booming for SpaceX's Dragon program, which is flying more often than anticipated due to delays with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. This means the spacecraft that launched NASA's Crew-8 mission Sunday night is now flying in space for its fifth mission and is reaching the end of its certified design life. SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule will stay in orbit at the space station for about six months, then come back to Earth.

It will certainly fly again ... This won't be the end of Endeavour's spaceflight career. NASA and SpaceX are working on certifying each Dragon spaceship for as many as 15 flights. SpaceX has four reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft in its inventory, with a fifth set to join the fleet late this year or early next year. This fleet should be enough to satisfy demand for crew missions from NASA and commercial customers through the end of the decade.

Three launches in 20 hours. Between Sunday night and Monday night, SpaceX teams in Texas, Florida, and California supervised three Falcon 9 rocket launches and completed a full dress rehearsal ahead of the next flight of the company's giant Starship launch vehicle, Ars reports. SpaceX has previously had rockets on all four of its active launch pads. But what SpaceX accomplished over a 24-hour period was noteworthy. Engineers inside at least four control centers were actively overseeing spacecraft and rocket operations simultaneously, and one of the Falcon 9 rockets took off before the previous mission was finished deploying all of its payloads.

Not boring yet ... Days like Sunday and Monday will become more common if SpaceX achieves its goals with the fully reusable Starship rocket. Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, has said one measure of success for SpaceX is to make rocket launches boring. The regularity of the Falcon 9 launch rate has succeeded in eroding the news value of many of SpaceX's missions, but thousands of people, at least space enthusiasts, still log in to watch every launch. Launches remain exciting, but that's not such a bad thing.

Russia has nothing to launch on its new flagship rocket. It has been nearly 10 years since Russia launched the first test flights of the country's Angara rocket. The heaviest version of the Angara rocket family—the Angara A5—is about to make its fourth flight in April, and like the three launches before, this mission won't carry a real satellite, Ars reports. By some measures, the Angara rocket program is more than 30 years old. Russia's government approved the development of Angara in 1992, but economic problems, chronic underfunding, and corruption have delayed the completion of the new rocket and its primary spaceport in Russia's Far East. Now, the rocket is finally flying, albeit at a glacial launch cadence, but Russia doesn't have any functioning satellites to put on it.

Dummy payload ...This next launch will be a milestone for the beleaguered Angara rocket program because it will be the first Angara flight from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia's newest launch site in the country's far east. The previous Angara launches were based out of the military-run Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The Angara A5 is supposed to replace Russia's Proton rocket, but its launch rate has slowed in recent years, too. The Proton has launched three times in the last two years, an anemic cadence also driven by a lack of payloads. Without any satellites available, Russian officials will launch a dummy payload on the next Angara A5 flight.

Chinese reusable rockets are on the horizon. China’s main state-owned contractor plans test flights for two new large-diameter reusable rockets in the next couple of years, despite existing commercial reusability efforts, Space News reports. These new government-backed reusable rockets will be 4 and 5 meters in diameter, a Chinese government official told state media, which did not clearly identify the names of the two rockets. The 5-meter diameter rocket could be the Long March 10, China's next-generation crew launch vehicle to ferry astronauts into low-Earth orbit, and eventually to the Moon. Chinese officials previously said the Long March 10's first stage will be reusable.

China's multiple paths to rocket reuse … Alongside efforts from China's incumbent state-backed space enterprises, there are several commercial companies in China also working on reusable rocket technology. In January, Landspace performed a vertical takeoff and landing hop test with a methane-fueled rocket, which reached an altitude of about 1,150 feet (350 meters). This test was akin to one of SpaceX's early Grasshopper hops to fine-tune techniques for landing Falcon 9 boosters. Landspace is developing a partially reusable rocket called Zhuque 3. A roster of Chinese companies is joining the reusable rocket race, including iSpace, Space Pioneer, Galactic Energy, CAS Space, and Orienspace, which have already successfully launched expendable rockets into orbit. (submitted by Jay500001)

A date at Starbase. SpaceX has set March 14, next Thursday, as a tentative target launch date for the third full-scale test flight of the Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket, Ars reports. This launch date hinges on SpaceX receiving a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, but all signs point to SpaceX being ready for a launch attempt on the morning of March 14. The team at SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas completed a full-up countdown dress rehearsal last weekend, loading methane and liquid oxygen into the rocket before cutting off the countdown at T-minus 10 seconds.

Some changes this time … Based upon learnings from these first two flights, this next mission, with upgraded hardware and flight software, likely has a reasonable chance of success. On this mission, SpaceX will want to achieve the same good performance from the Super Heavy booster's 33 Raptor engines that it saw on the second Starship test flight in November. The November launch also demonstrated SpaceX's "hot staging" technique, which will be repeated on this next flight, but Starship's upper stage failed a few minutes later, shortly before reaching its target near-orbital velocity. SpaceX will want to complete the upper stage's six-engine burn this time, then perform tests of Starship's payload bay door and in-space refueling tech in microgravity. An engine restart will guide Starship on a reentry over the Indian Ocean before completing a full orbit of the Earth.

SpaceX's land deal in Texas. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously Monday to pursue an exchange that would give 43 acres of Boca Chica State Park in Cameron County, Texas, to SpaceX, the Texas Tribune reports. The state park land would be swapped for 477 acres adjacent to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, an area to the northwest of SpaceX's Starbase launch site. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has been interested in this location for many years because of its biological diversity and suitability for fishing, kayaking, hiking, camping, and birding. SpaceX appears to be swapping the 477-acre plot through an affiliate company. SpaceX hasn't said how it will use the 43 acres it will receive in the deal, but the land is located near existing launch and rocket manufacturing infrastructure at Starbase. TPWD will now begin negotiations with SpaceX for the land swap, including environmental assessments that could take up to 18 months.

Not everyone is happy … The land swap vote Monday was originally scheduled for late January, but officials delayed it after backlash by conservationists and some South Texas residents who said the deal was being rushed and TPWD violated its open meetings code by not providing enough notice to Spanish speakers about the proposal. Some local activists voiced concerns SpaceX's activities could lead to reduced access to the public beach near Starbase or could put endangered species at risk. Officials from Indigenous communities are worried about losing access to sacred tribal areas near Boca Chica Beach. Kathy Lueders, SpaceX's general manager at Starbase, spoke at Monday's meeting. "Those launches are exciting the young minds that are watching them … children become what they see," Lueders said as people booed behind her, according to the Texas Tribune. "Today it is not an aspiration to be a rocket scientist and work in the Rio Grande Valley. It is a reality." (submitted by Jay500001)

New Glenn testing underway in Florida. Blue Origin has completed an initial round of cryogenic testing on a New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, NASASpaceflight reports. A test version of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket was loaded with super-cold liquid nitrogen on at least two occasions, February 27 and March 4. These cold flow tests helped Blue Origin validate how connections between the launch pad and the rocket itself will perform when exposed to super-cold fluids. Future tests will involve flowing New Glenn's actual propellants, methane and liquid oxygen, into the rocket.

Static fire this summer … There are no engines on this New Glenn test vehicle. Blue Origin plans to wrap up testing in the next few months on the seven methane-fueled BE-4 booster engines and two hydrogen-burning BE-3U upper-stage engines slated to fly on the first New Glenn rocket, which could take off before the end of 2024. Once this first round of cryogenic tests is complete, Blue Origin will remove this rocket from the launch pad to allow technicians to install the booster's engine compartment with the seven BE-4s. New Glenn will also need a new upper stage before returning to Launch Complex 36 for a hot-fire test of the seven BE-4 engines this summer.

Next three launches

March 9: Kairos | Quick Response Satellite | Space Port Kii, Japan | 02:01 UTC

March 10: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-43 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 23:03 UTC

March 11: Falcon 9 | Starlink 7-17 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 02:13 UTC