Welcome to Edition 3.14 of the Rocket Report! So basically, it's Pi week for us. Also, you may realize we did not put out a Rocket Report last week—this is because the threat of Hurricane Laura provided an unexpected but significant distraction to the author. But now we're back with a larger edition than ever.
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 successfully returns to flight. Flying for the first time since a failure two months ago, Rocket Lab's Electron rocket delivered Capella Space's first commercial radar remote-sensing satellite to orbit Sunday after lifting off from New Zealand, Spaceflight Now reports. Rocket Lab says it has monthly launches scheduled for the rest of 2020, including the company's first flight from a new pad at Wallops Island, Virginia.
Building a better connector … Investigators traced the cause of the July 4 failure to a single faulty electrical connector on the second stage, which detached in flight and led to a premature engine shutdown. Rocket Lab said it has implemented improved testing to better screen for bad connectors, and the success of Electron's return-to-flight mission appears to have supported that idea. (submitted by Ken the Bin and JohnCarter17)
After 14 months, Vega returns to flight, too. On September 2 at 10:51pm local time in Kourou, French Guiana, Europe's light-lift Vega launcher performed its 15th successful mission, marking its return to flight. The ride-share mission carried 53 satellites into orbit for 21 customers, Arianespace said.
Back to business … The return-to-flight mission following a rocket failure in July 2019 was originally scheduled for March, before the COVID-19 pandemic closed the European spaceport. After the spaceport reopened in June, unfavorable winds precluded a launch attempt until later in the summer. With this mission complete, Arianespace hopes to market the Vega as an affordable ride-share vehicle for institutional and commercial customers. (submitted by platykuritc and Ken the Bin)
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PLD Space tests its rocket engine. Spanish launch startup PLD Space has completed critical testing of the company's Teprel-B rocket engine, SpaceNews reports. The engine is expected to power the single-stage suborbital Miura 1 launch vehicle. Miura 1 is designed to launch 100kg of payload to an altitude of 150km, providing as much as three minutes of microgravity.
A step closer to qualifying the engine … PLD Space said it had successfully completed a series of thrust vector control tests on the kerosene-fueled Teprel-B rocket engine. The completion of the Teprel-B thrust vector control testing follows a successful "burst test" in March of the Miura 1 composite overwrapped pressure vessel, which is used to pressurize the rocket's propulsion stage during flight. (submitted by JohnCarter17, platykurtic and Ken the Bin)
Rocket Lab gains FAA launch license for Wallops. Rocket Lab said this week it has gained a key clearance from the US Federal Aviation Administration for the Virginia spaceport. With its "Launch Operator License" for the LC-2 pad at Wallops, the company can conduct multiple launches from the location without having to petition the agency for a mission-specific license for each individual flight, TechCrunch reports.
Launching later this year? … Rocket Lab held its official opening ceremony for the Virginia-based LC-2 at the end of last year, but COVID-19 and its related disruptions were probably what delayed the planned debut activity at the site. The company still has yet to set a launch date for the first mission from its second overall launch pad. (submitted by danneely and Ken the Bin)
Scottish launch site takes another step. After receiving planning approval from the Highland Council, with up to 12 launches a year permitted, a proposed vertical-launch spaceport in northern Scotland is taking its next regulatory step. Highlands and Islands Enterprise said it is applying to the Scottish Land Court for consent to build and operate the facility.
Crofting means small-scale farming … Scottish Land Court consent is required because the project would be developed on crofting land, which is currently classed as common grazing. Any crofter with livestock on the common grazing would be asked to move their animals for periods around launch days. Construction is scheduled to begin next year, with a view to first launch potentially taking place before the end of 2022. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
SpaceX launches its 100th rocket. Weather conditions were poor throughout the afternoon of Sunday, August 30, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. But they cleared up just long enough for SpaceX to launch the SAOCOM-1B mission. This was a historic mission for two reasons, Ars reports, as SpaceX launched a rocket for the 100th time and flew a rare polar-corridor mission from Florida for Argentina's space agency.
Three different rockets … The tally of missions includes five Falcon 1 launches, three Falcon Heavy missions, and 92 Falcon 9 launches. Sunday's mission also represented the first time a rocket has launched from Florida—which is optimized for equatorial launches—into a polar orbit in 50 years. It was made possible due to a modernized flight-termination system that protected the Florida coast. On Thursday, the company flew its 101st mission.
Sea Launch spaceport will require $470 million to restore. The floating spaceport, currently located in a shipyard near Vladivostok, Russia, will require an investment of approximately $470 million to prepare it for new launches. This estimate came from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov, the TASS news agency reports.
Sitting fallow for five years … The last launch from the sea-based platform took place in May 2015. "It is a unique structure unparalleled in the world," Borisov said. "Some have plans for building something similar. It would be very silly of us, if we decided against restoring the Sea Launch and using its services. Technically all this is possible." We'll believe this when the funding is allocated and repairs begin. (submitted by JohnCarter17 and Ken the Bin)
China may launch a spaceplane on Friday. They're just rumors right now (i.e. see here), but there is chatter among Chinese sources on Twitter that the country will launch a Long March 2F rocket on Friday. This is the human-rated version of the Long March 2 rocket family.
I can haz wings in orbit? … There are some hints that this may be an experimental spaceplane, although whether it would eventually take people into space is unknown. (This offers a good overview of Chinese spaceplane projects). Basically, this is just a heads-up that something interesting may soon happen with China's space industry. (Friday morning update: It was a reusable space plane).
Starliner launch set for no earlier than December. In an update from NASA, the space agency said progress is being made toward a second uncrewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on an Atlas V rocket. The Commercial Crew Program currently is now targeting no earlier than December 2020 for launch of the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2, pending hardware readiness, flight-software qualification, and launch vehicle and space station manifest priorities.
Epps gets the call … Assuming a successful test flight, Boeing and NASA will subsequently fly Starliner's first crewed mission, the Crew Flight Test, no earlier than June 2021, with the first post-certification mission, called Starliner-1, tentatively scheduled for no earlier than late December 2021. NASA separately announced that Jeanette Epps would join this post-certification mission. (submitted by Ken the Bin, platykurtic, and JohnCarter17)
Masten selects Falcon 9 for 2022 lunar launch. The company announced it has contracted with SpaceX to deliver its 2.7-ton XL-1 lunar lander to the Moon in about two years. The mission was funded by NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which provided Masten with $76 million to design, build, and launch the lunar lander capable of delivering 100kg to the Moon's surface. This suggests the mission will be a ride-share, although neither Masten nor SpaceX has explicitly said so.
A gray Falcon 9? … SpaceX has already successfully launched Israel's Beresheet commercial lunar lander in February 2019, although that spacecraft failed, Teslarati notes. SpaceX also has commercial launches of an Intuitive Machines lander and two Moon missions for the Japanese company iSpace on its books. (submitted by danneely and JohnCarter17)
SES taps SpaceX for two additional Falcon 9 launches. Fleet operator SES said on August 20 that it has selected SpaceX to launch four recently ordered O3b mPower broadband satellites. The agreement means SpaceX will launch all 11 of SES' O3b mPower satellites to medium Earth orbit across four Falcon 9 launches, SpaceNews reports.
Early 2020s launches … SES chose SpaceX in 2019 to launch seven O3b mPower satellites on two Falcon 9 missions in 2021. As the O3b mPower program matured, however, SES realized a maximum of three of these satellites could fit on a single Falcon 9, necessitating at least one more launch. SES' four-satellite expansion order, announced August 7, further increased its launch needs. SES has now grouped the satellites into launches from the third quarter of 2021 through the second half of 2024. (submitted by JohnCarter17)
Space Launch System will cost 33 percent more. In a fairly anodyne update on NASA's "Artemis" blog publisheRead More – Source
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