ISRO
Welcome to issue 7.08 of the Rocket Report! As always, lots of news, but what I’m most interested in is the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission. If all goes according to plan, the flight will open up all sorts of avenues for commercial spaceflight, including the first-ever private spacewalk. Good luck to Jared Isaacman and his crew on their adventurous mission.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP versions of the site). Each report includes information on small, medium, and heavy rockets, as well as a quick look ahead to the next three launches on the calendar.
RFA One blows up a booster. The first stage of Rocket Factory Augsburg’s first orbital launcher was destroyed in a fireball during a test firing Monday night at a spaceport in Scotland, Ars reports. It’s a notable event for Europe’s commercial space industry, as the German launch startup had planned to send its first rocket into space later this year and appeared to be ahead of several competitors in Europe’s commercial launch industry that are also developing rockets to launch small satellites into orbit. The BBC obtained video footage of the fiery explosion.
Now comes the hard work of anomaly investigation … In a statement, RFA said there was “an anomaly that led to the loss of the stage” Monday night. The company said no one was injured and reported that the launch pad had been “saved and secured.” This was the same rocket that RFA had planned to launch on its first test flight. Monday's hot fire test was the first involving all nine engines on RFA One's first stage. “We are now working closely with SaxaVord Spaceport and the authorities to gather data and information to ultimately resolve what happened,” RFA said. “We will take our time to analyze and assess the situation.” On Thursday, the cause was attributed to a turbopump fire. (submitted by SPHK_Tech, gizmo23, brianrhurley, Jay500001, and Ken the Bin)
Orbex says it's targeting a 2025 launch, but be realistic. UK-based Orbex is now predicting a first launch of its small launch vehicle in 2025, the company’s CEO recently told Space News. Phil Chambers, CEO of the UK-based company, said the company is making progress on both its Prime small rocket and the launch site at Sutherland Spaceport in northern Scotland. “We’re targeting a 2025 launch,” Chambers said, but he wouldn’t be more specific about a launch date other than to say the company wanted to avoid a winter launch due to poor weather conditions. “But I do want it to be 2025.”
Shooting to become the first successful orbital launch from the UK …There's an interesting detail in the story that caught my attention: “Vehicle subsystems undergoing critical design reviews, with some flight hardware under construction.” Let's face it, if they're still in the critical design review process for subsystems, the chances of a 2025 launch are zero, and frankly, for a company founded in 2015, that shouldn't give them much confidence that the company will ever successfully launch a space rocket. (submitted by EllPeaTea)
SSLV makes its third launchIndia successfully launched its third Small Satellite Launch Vehicle on Thursday, placing an Earth-observing satellite into orbit and completing the solid rocket development process, Space News reports. The rocket carried the experimental Earth-observing spacecraft EOS-08 into its intended 475-kilometer circular orbit for the Indian Space Research Organization.
Two to three … According to ISRO Chairman S. Somanath, the successful completion of the SSLV development phase will pave the way for technology transfer to Indian industry, enabling serial production and operational deployment of the SSLV. The first SSLV flight failed in August 2022 when a failure of the upper stage stranded the payload in a very low orbit. The second launch, in February 2023, was successful. (Submitted by Ken the Bin)
Indian company plans suborbital launch. A Chennai-based startup, Space Zone India, is planning to launch its Rhumi-01 suborbital rocket from a mobile launcher on Saturday. The hybrid vehicle, which combines both solid and liquid rocket fuels, will carry three cubesats and 50 smaller picosats in its debut launch, reports the New Indian Express.
Looking for rocket recycling … According to the company's website, the Rhumi launch vehicle can reach an altitude of about 30 km. The three cubesats are designed to monitor atmospheric conditions and collect data including cosmic ray intensity, ultraviolet radiation intensity, air quality and more. The company said the majority of the rocket is designed to be recoverable and reusable. (submitted by brianrhurley)
Sierra Space tests ULABoeing and Lockheed Martin are in talks to sell their rocket-launching joint venture United Launch Alliance to Sierra Space, Reuters reports. A deal could value ULA at about $2 billion to $3 billion, sources told the publication. A potential deal would be an ambitious move for Sierra Space, which spun off Sierra Nevada in 2021 to focus on commercializing its long-delayed Dream Chaser spaceplane. A deal with ULA would give the company a rocket, Vulcan, for uncrewed and possibly crewed Dream Chaser launches.
A source believes the deal is unlikely … ULA has been actively for sale for over a year. Blue Origin and Cerberus Capital Management had made bids for the company in early 2023, but none of those bids resulted in a deal. I learned of Sierra’s interest last Friday, but the Reuters story broke before I could write anything. I will say, based on the reporting I’ve been able to do, that discussions between Sierra and ULA’s owners have been serious and substantial. However, at this point, my best information indicates that a sale is unlikely. The parents believe ULA is worth more than Sierra is willing to pay. Sierra would also need to borrow significantly for a transaction to happen. (submitted by Hacker Uno and Ken the Bin)
