Rocket Report: ULA Centaur stage has an ‘anomaly,’ Virgin Orbit funding is dire

Welcome to Edition 5.31 of the Rocket Report! We're about to tip over into April, and all signs continue to point to the likelihood of a Starship orbital launch attempt this month. I've heard all sorts of dates, but most recently, SpaceX appears to be working internally toward April 10. That lines up with about when a launch license is expected from the Federal Aviation Administration.

It probably won't happen that soon, but we are pretty darn close, y'all.

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 and a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Isar Aerospace scores a big funding round. Before this week, the Munich-based company had raised about $165 million, a reasonable amount of cash for a launch startup building a small rocket. On Tuesday, Isar announced that it had doubled this total with a new $165 million Series C round, Ars reports. "The strong interest and commitment from our international investors signals their confidence in our vision and technological capabilities," said Isar's chief executive, Daniel Metzler.

Serious funding for a startup ... Isar says that its Spectrum rocket—which is capable of lifting about 1 metric ton to low-Earth orbit—is planned for a debut launch from Andøya, Norway, during the second half of 2023. That timeline is probably aspirational, but given the capital raise announced this week, Isar appears to have the funding needed to get its Spectrum vehicle into orbit. This funding, in my view, puts Isar clearly out in front of a dozen or so other small launch companies in Europe working to reach orbit. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Virgin Orbit faces a dire situation. A potential deal to raise $200 million from an investor based in Texas, Matthew Brown, fell through last weekend, CNBC reports. This forced the company to extend an unpaid furlough for the majority of its employees this week as Virgin Orbit continues to seek other funding sources to stave off bankruptcy. On Thursday afternoon, during an all-hands meeting, the company told employees it was laying off 85 percent of its staff.

Savings for me, but not for thee ... Also this week, the company's board of directors approved a “golden parachute” severance plan for top executives, including chief executive Dan Hart, in case they are terminated following a change in control of the company. None of this looks good, and the golden parachute clause smells bad. At this point, perhaps the only potential lifeline is if Great Britain decides it needs a sovereign launch capability and executes a similar financial maneuver as it did with OneWeb a few years ago. Even this seems unlikely. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Blue Origin details launch failure. A little more than six months after the failure of its New Shepard rocket, Blue Origin has published a summary of the findings made by its accident investigation team. Essentially, Ars reports, the rocket's main engine nozzle sustained temperatures that were higher than anticipated, leading to an explosion of the rocket. Blue Origin led the investigation with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Back to flight "soon" ... The mishap team noted "hot streaks" on the nozzle and determined that it was operating at higher temperatures than it was designed for. Although the summary does not explicitly say so, it appears that at some point in the flight campaign of this booster, design changes were made that allowed for these hotter temperatures to be present. The company says it intends to return to flight "soon" with an uncrewed flight to give the three dozen payloads that were flying on the NS-23 mission another shot at weightlessness. Previously, Blue Origin said that it plans to resume human flights on the suborbital space tourism spacecraft later in 2023. (submitted by buddy and Ken the Bin)

Rocket Lab recovers another booster. After launching two BlackSky satellites last Friday, an Electron first stage was recovered from the Pacific Ocean as Rocket Lab continues to study reuse options, Spaceflight Now reports. After attempting two mid-air recoveries, the company is considering ditching the use of a helicopter and simply refurbishing boosters that land in the ocean. Michael Daly, a Rocket Lab special projects engineer working on Electron reusability, said his team on the recovery boat will clean sensitive parts of the rocket to prevent corrosion.

Helicopters are hard ... Engineers and technicians on the recovery team will perform “operations like de-salting the engines, trying to remove all that bad salt water, and basically just trying to make the rocket survive that experience with the water. Once the booster is back at Rocket Lab’s Auckland factory, the company will disassemble and inspect the nine main engines and remove avionics for examination and re-testing. Rocket Lab has already hot-fired a Rutherford engine recovered from an Electron flight. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)