Welcome to Edition 7.01 of the Rocket Report! We’re compiling this week’s report a day later than common as a result of Independence Day vacation. Ars is starting its seventh 12 months publishing this weekly roundup of rocket information, and there is quite a lot of it this week regardless of the vacation right here within the United States. Worldwide, there have been 122 launches that flew into Earth orbit or past within the first half of 2024, up from 91 in the identical interval final 12 months.
As all the time, we welcome reader submissions, and should you do not wish to miss a difficulty, please subscribe utilizing the field beneath (the shape won’t seem on AMP-enabled variations of the location). Each report will embody data on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets in addition to a fast look forward on the subsequent three launches on the calendar.
Firefly launches its fifth Alpha flight. Firefly Aerospace positioned eight CubeSats into orbit on a mission funded by NASA on the primary flight of the corporate’s Alpha rocket since an higher stage malfunction greater than half a 12 months in the past, Space News studies. The two-stage Alpha rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California late Wednesday, two days after a difficulty with floor tools aborted liftoff simply earlier than engine ignition. The eight CubeSats come from NASA facilities and universities for a spread of academic, analysis, and know-how demonstration missions. This was the fifth flight of Firefly’s Alpha rocket, able to putting a few metric ton of payload into low-Earth orbit.
Anomaly decision … This was the fifth flight of an Alpha rocket since 2021 and the fourth Alpha flight to realize orbit. But the final Alpha launch in December failed to put its Lockheed Martin payload into the right orbit because of an issue throughout the relighting of its second-stage engine. On this week’s launch, Alpha deployed its NASA-sponsored payloads after a single burn of the second stage, then accomplished a profitable restart of the engine for a airplane change maneuver. Engineers traced the issue on the final Alpha flight to a software program error. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Two corporations added to DoD’s launch pool. Blue Origin and Stoke Space Technologies — neither of which has but reached orbit — have been authorized by the US Space Force to compete for future launches of small payloads, Breaking Defense studies. Blue Origin and Stoke Space be part of a roster of launch corporations eligible to compete for launch activity orders the Space Force places up for bid via the Orbital Services Program-4 (OSP-4) contract. Under this contract, Space Systems Command buys launch providers for payloads 400 kilos (180 kilograms) or higher, enabling launch from 12 to 24 months of the award of a activity order. The OSP-4 contract has an “emphasis on small orbital launch capabilities and launch options for Tactically Responsive Space mission wants,” stated Lt. Col. Steve Hendershot, chief of Space Systems Command’s small launch and targets division.
An even dozen … Blue Origin goals to launch its orbital-class New Glenn rocket for the primary time as quickly as late September, whereas Stoke Space goals to fly its Nova rocket on an orbital take a look at flight subsequent 12 months. The addition of those two corporations means there are 12 suppliers eligible to bid on OSP-4 activity orders. The different corporations are ABL Space Systems, Aevum, Astra, Firefly Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and X-Bow. (submitted by Ken the Bin and brianrhurley)
Italian startup test-fires small rocket. Italian rocket builder Sidereus Space Dynamics has accomplished the primary built-in system take a look at of its EOS rocket, European Spaceflight studies. This take a look at occurred Sunday, culminating in a firing of the rocket’s kerosene/liquid oxygen MR-5 essential engine for roughly 11 seconds. The EOS rocket is a novel design, using a single-stage-to-orbit structure, with the reusable booster returning to Earth from orbit for restoration below a parafoil. The rocket stands lower than 14 toes (4.2 meters) tall and will likely be able to delivering about 29 kilos (13 kilograms) of payload to low-Earth orbit.
A lean operation … After it completes built-in testing on the bottom, the corporate will conduct the primary low-altitude EOS take a look at flights. Founded in 2019, Sidereus has raised 6.6 million euros ($7.1 million) to fund the event of the EOS rocket. While this is a fraction of the funding different European launch startups like Isar Aerospace, MaiaSpace, and Orbex have attracted, the Sidereus’s CEO, Mattia Barbarossa, has beforehand said that the corporate intends to “reshape spaceflight in a fraction of the time and with limited resources.” (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)