Welcome to Edition 4.13 of the Rocket Report! While there may be a LOX shortage in launch, there is no shortage of launch news this week. So this report runs long.
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.
Virgin Orbit to go public, expand offerings. Virgin Orbit will use the proceeds of a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company to expand its launch business and develop a satellite constellation for Internet-of-things and Earth-observation services. After merging with NextGen Acquisition Corp. II in a deal expected to close at the end of this year, Virgin Orbit will receive as much as $483 million in capital before transaction expenses. The deal includes $100 million in funding from Boeing and AE Industrial Partners, SpaceNews reports.
Plans for vehicle upgrades ... About 40 percent of the proceeds from the deal would go toward scaling up production of the LauncherOne system, including investments in advanced manufacturing capabilities. The company plans to spend 35 percent of the proceeds of the deal on research and development, such as launch upgrades. The investor presentation briefly outlined a "future technology development roadmap" that includes upgrades to the rocket to roughly double its payload performance to 500–600 kilograms. The company is studying an upper stage and orbital transfer vehicle as well as evaluating the ability to recover and reuse the first stage. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Blue Origin completes 17th New Shepard launch. The uncrewed flight carried payloads supported by NASA's Flight Opportunities program and included a second flight of the Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration under a NASA Tipping Point partnership, Blue Origin said. This demo mission, which flew for the second time mounted on the exterior of New Shepard's booster, tested technology designed to achieve high-accuracy landing for future Moon missions.
Smith says ... "After flying more than 100 payloads to space on New Shepard, today's 8th flight of this vehicle carried NASA-sponsored and commercial experiments, including the second flight of NASA's lunar landing technology that will one day allow us to further explore the Moon's surface," said Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin. "We are grateful to NASA for partnering with us once again on this experiment, and we are proud of the Blue Origin team for executing a great flight in support of all our customers." (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Billionaire challenge to Scottish spaceport shot down. A Scottish court has thrown out objections of a billionaire landowner against a planning permission granted to an operator of a prospective spaceport in the north of Scotland, Space.com reports. Anders Povlsen, a Danish fashion tycoon who owns more land in the UK than the queen and the Church of Scotland combined, launched a judicial review against Space Hub Sutherland earlier this year.
Full steam ahead ... However, Judge Raymond Doherty of the Supreme Courts of Scotland rejected all points of Povlsen's petition in a 30-page ruling released on Friday, saying, "none of the grounds of the challenge is well founded." Povlsen's nature conservation and tourism company Wildland Limited, which owns an estate adjacent to the prospective spaceport, protested against the decision of the local authority, the Highlands Council, which greenlighted the construction of the space hub in August 2020. If granted, the challenge could have halted plans to see rockets fly from the UK soil next year. (submitted by EllPeaTea)
Relativity delays debut of Terran 1 rocket to early 2022. 3D-rocket-printing company Relativity Space has pushed back the date of the demonstration launch of its lightweight Terran 1 rocket from winter 2021 to early 2022. The company announced the updated schedule on Twitter, while also confirming that the launch will take place out of Cape Canaveral in Florida, TechCrunch reports.
Seeking better coordination ... A company spokesperson told the publication that there is "no one single reason" why the launch date has been pushed back. "Over the past year, Relativity has... refined Terran 1's architecture, developed a brand new engine and upgraded its material while COVID slowed a few of its processes down," the spokesperson added. "They updated the demonstration launch to early 2022 so they can better coordinate with partners." (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Price of Virgin Galactic seat reservation increases. Virgin Galactic is seeking deposits of $149,000 from future passengers on its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, according to Parabolic Arc. The amount is just under one-third of the $450,000 ticket price for the trip to the edge of space. The message was sent to a customer who had put down a $1,000 deposit on a seat.
A chance to get your grand back ... If the prospective flyer decides to go forward, Virgin Galactic will send out a spaceflight application on September 1. The message said the $1,000 deposit will be refunded if the person decides not to proceed. When seats first went on sale way back in 2005, tickets cost $200,000, and the minimum refundable deposit required was $20,000. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Australian government permits rocket launch. The federal government has given regulatory approval for a commercial rocket launch to take place later this year from a newly licensed launch facility in South Australia. Taiwanese company TiSPACE will conduct a test flight of its Hapith I rocket from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex, which is operated by Southern Launch, the government said.
Building rockets, too? ... The booster is a 10-meter-tall, two-stage suborbital rocket, and the date for the launch will be determined by TiSPACE and Southern Launch in the coming months. Additionally, TiSPACE is considering bringing manufacturing of complete rocket systems to Australia. Government officials touted the potential benefits of becoming a more active player in space. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Want to own a piece of New Shepard? Blue Origin's Club for the Future charity has announced that the Estes New Shepard model rocket will launch in November. Manufactured by Estes Industries, the model has been reduced to 1/66th scale of Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle to ignite the imagination of families nationwide. Each box comes with a Club for the Future postcard.
A provocative price point ... According to Estes, the rocket is fully reusable and follows the same flight profile as the actual rocket. The capsule is payload-capable and separates from the booster near its apogee of nearly 400 feet. It then floats back to Earth under a parachute for a gentle touchdown. You can buy it for $69.99 on the Estes website.
ULA official calls NASA leadership "incompetent." In what appear to be legitimate emails from April and May, a senior official of the US rocket company United Launch Alliance (ULA) characterizes the leadership of NASA as "incompetent and unpredictable." The statement was made in one of six emails leaked on a hacking forum Tuesday evening, Ars reports. The leaked emails all involve correspondence between Robbie Sabathier, the vice president of government operations and strategic communications at ULA, and Hasan Solomon, a lobbyist at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, a large aerospace union.
Slimes Elon Musk, too ... The emails make claims, some verifiable and some that seem to be wildly erroneous, about the relationship between NASA, the Trump administration, SpaceX founder Elon Musk, and China. The central argument put forth by ULA—a company whose launch business has been damaged by the rise of SpaceX—is that NASA, as led by Trump officials, favored SpaceX for political reasons. "Large NASA taxpayer investments are being thrown away due to the cozy relationship established by Trump political hacks throughout NASA," Sabathier wrote on April 23. "The US Government's deep space exploration program is at risk: This large program which is the baseline for deep space exploration is being threatened due to political favors being offered to Elon Musk." ULA did not comment on the emails but said it was taking "this alleged cyber crime seriously."
James Webb Space Telescope passes final tests. Engineering teams have completed Webb's long-spanning comprehensive testing regimen at Northrop Grumman's facilities, NASA said. Webb's many tests and checkpoints were designed to ensure that the world's most complex space science observatory will operate as designed once in space.
Next up, shipping to South America ... Now that observatory testing has concluded, shipment operations have begun. This includes all the necessary steps to prepare Webb for a safe journey through the Panama Canal to its launch location in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America. No formal launch date has been announced for this momentous mission, but we anticipate a liftoff in mid-December.
SpaceX to resume Starlink launches in September. SpaceX hasn't launched any Starlink Internet satellites since June. That's because the company has been adding "lasers" to the spacecraft, Space.com reports. Since it last launched a batch of Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit on June 30, SpaceX has been quiet about what's next for the constellation. With Starlink launches happening frequently in the first half of 2021, this pause raised questions.
Lots of lasers ... This week at the 36th annual Space Symposium, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell explained the break. "We're flying a number of laser terminals right now in space," she said, adding that SpaceX is now working to integrate lasers into all of its Starlink satellites. "That's why we have been struggling for six or eight weeks—we wanted the next set to have laser terminals on them," Shotwell said. SpaceX aims to start lofting Starlink satellites again in approximately three weeks, Shotwell said. (submitted by 3ch0 and Ken the Bin)
LOX shortage curtails SpaceX launch plans. More news from Shotwell at the Space Symposium: she said a widespread shortage of liquid oxygen linked to the latest wave of the pandemic could affect SpaceX's launch schedule, SpaceNews reports. "We're actually going to be impacted this year with the lack of liquid oxygen for launch," she said. "We certainly are going to make sure the hospitals are going to have the oxygen that they need, but for anybody who has liquid oxygen to spare, send me an email."
Next up, Cargo Dragon ... Demand for liquid oxygen has soared in recent weeks because of the rise of COVID-19 cases caused by the delta variant. Hospitals use liquid oxygen as a source of oxygen for ventilators. SpaceX's next scheduled launch is a cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station on August 28 from Kennedy Space Center. (submitted by 3ch0 and Ken the Bin)
First images of Project Jarvis test tank. On Tuesday, Blue Origin used a modular transport to roll its first stainless steel test tank to Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This tank is part of the company's efforts—under the codename "Project Jarvis"—to develop a fully reusable upper stage for Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket. Ars was able to capture the first public photos of the tank prototype. A source at Blue Origin said this tank could start to undergo a series of tests to determine its strength and ability to hold pressurized propellants as soon as next month.
Seeking to lower New Glenn costs ... Although Blue Origin has not publicly discussed this effort to build a reusable upper stage for the New Glenn rocket, sources said the company's primary goal is to bring down the overall launch cost of the New Glenn rocket. The vehicle's large upper stage, which has a seven-meter diameter and two BE-3U engines, is costly. Making New Glenn fully reusable is necessary for Blue Origin to compete with SpaceX's Starship launch system. Project Jarvis encompasses the tank program, which is intended to rapidly prototype a propellant tank to withstand the rigors of multiple launches and re-entries.
ULA chief offers sharpest words on BE-4 yet. In an interview with the Denver Business Journal published Monday, Tory Bruno acknowledged that Blue Origin will not deliver BE-4 rocket engines to ULA before the end of this year. Previously, Bruno had said publicly he expected delivery this summer, even though Ars reported that the flight engines for the Vulcan rocket were still being manufactured at Blue Origin's factory in Kent, Washington.
Not delivered BE-4 the end of 2021 ... "It will be shortly into the beginning of the 2022 calendar year," Bruno told the publication. He also, for the first time, said some words publicly that bordered on criticism of Blue Origin. "I'll be straight with you, the dates we've set up for them now, we really don't have the ability to make any big moves after this," Bruno said. "I need them to diligently work through the plans we have and get done on time." Bruno said he speaks weekly with Blue Origin about the engine's progress.
SpaceX may dig tunnel in South Texas. As SpaceX has ramped up Starship testing and launch activities in South Texas in recent years, the company has more frequently sought the closure of the Boca Chica Highway. This two-lane road runs along the company's rocket assembly and launch facilities. Residents of South Texas use the highway primarily to travel from Brownsville and nearby towns to Boca Chica Beach, the southernmost beach in Texas. When the road is closed, no one can access or remain on the beach.
A boring solution ... This situation has become a logistical headache for SpaceX, which seeks road closures to move rocket hardware along the road and for tests and launches. It has also been unpleasant for nearby residents and those who enjoy the undeveloped beach. Now, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has a potential solution, Ars reports. Officials from Musk's The Boring Company met with Cameron County officials in July to discuss digging a tunnel from the south end of South Padre Island to the north end of Boca Chica Beach, facilitating alternate access to the barrier island.
Psyche mission on time for launch next year. With its Psyche asteroid mission due to launch in August 2022, NASA said it is on target to complete assembly of the spacecraft next spring. Then it will be shipped to Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Its launch window, on a Falcon Heavy rocket, opens August 1.
Pushing toward the finish line ... The mission will visit the 226 km-wide, metal-rich asteroid Psyche, where the spacecraft is due to arrive in early 2026. "Like everyone in the world, our team has faced many challenges of the COVID pandemic, and we are putting in maximum effort to make it to the finish line," said Arizona State University's Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who leads the Psyche mission as principal investigator.
Next three launches
August 27: Rocket 3.3 | Space Test Program mission for Space Force | Kodiak Island, Alaska | 21:00 UTC
August 28: Falcon 9 | CRS-23 ISS Supply mission | Kennedy Space Center, Fla. | 07:37 UTC
Sept. 15: Falcon 9 | Inspiration 4 | Kennedy Space Center, Fla. | TBD
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