Blue Origin
Welcome to the 7.10 edition of Rocket Report! It’s been a big week for seeing new hardware from Blue Origin. We watched as New Glenn’s second stage launched onto the launch pad in Florida and the rocket’s first stage recovery ship, Jaclyn, arrived at a nearby port. It looks like the giant new rocket is finally gearing up for its first launch.
As always, we Reader submissions welcomeand if you don’t want to miss an issue, subscribe using the box below (the form won’t appear in the AMP-enabled version of the site). Each report includes information on small, medium and large rockets, as well as a brief outlook for the next three launches on the calendar.
Vega rocket makes final flightThe final flight of Europe’s Vega rocket lifted off from French Guiana on Wednesday night, carrying a key environmental monitoring satellite for the European Union’s flagship Copernicus program, Ars reports. About an hour after liftoff, the Vega rocket’s upper stage released Sentinel-2C into its target orbit. Sentinel-2C then radioed status to ground controllers, confirming the satellite was healthy in space. The Vega rocket will be replaced by a larger Vega-C rocket with a more powerful booster stage and a wider payload fairing. One of the Vega-C’s main purposes is to launch future Copernicus satellites for Europe.
Mixed record of commercial success …”I think it was a great success,” Avio CEO Giulio Lanzo told Ars in an interview hours before the mission on Wednesday night. “It was our first rocket and our first experience as a major player in the rocket field.” But in its 12 years of operation, the Vega rocket never really took off in the commercial launch market. It averaged about two flights per year, primarily deploying satellites for the European Space Agency and other European government agencies, which prefer to launch their payloads on European rockets.
ABL Space lays off employeesLaunch vehicle developer ABL Space Systems has laid off a significant number of employees, citing the need to cut costs after the loss of a rocket during a static test launch. Space news coverage. in post ABL CEO Harry O’Hanley said on LinkedIn on August 30 that the company would be cutting an unspecified number of positions. The cuts come after the company’s second RS1 rocket was lost in a fire on July 19 following a static-fire test at the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska.
The days of easy money are over. …O’Hanley said in an email that the company had been working to cut costs since before the test, citing market changes and access to capital. The company had raised hundreds of millions of dollars, including $200 million in October 2021 and $170 million in March 2021. Starting in 2023, Hanley wrote, “we are reducing costs and preparing the company for leaner operations with smaller teams, controlled hiring and more conservative spending.” That was working well, he said, until the static electricity fire incident. (Courtesy of Brian Hurley and Ken the Vin)
Too many results with no spacesA recent feature in SpaceNews reviewed how the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) process went for several new space companies. As COVID-19 ravages the economy, the fate of space companies that have merged with publicly traded shell companies seeking capital is apparently complicated. The publication says.
The launch didn’t go well “Most of the companies in this class that rushed to drum up investor support for their SPAC mergers suffered reputational losses when they smashed revenue forecasts,” author Jason Rainbow writes. The list includes four launch companies: Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit, Astra, and Rocket Lab. Of those, Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy and Astra was taken private again after dismal performance. And Virgin Galactic is trading at $7 in public trading, down nearly 90% from its pandemic peak. Rocket Lab is the only one to earn a gold star for its post-SPAC performance.
New investor lawsuit against Branson over Virgin GalacticA newly unsealed lawsuit alleges that Richard Branson used false hype about the capabilities of Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft to make $1 billion worth of illegal insider stock sales. Bloomberg Law reportsShareholders sued, alleging that Branson misled the public for years about the readiness of Virgin Galactic’s flagship space tourist ship. UnityIt then sold “significant amounts of stock” throughout 2020 and 2021, including $300 million in August 2021, shortly after Branson flew aboard the spacecraft. Branson founded Virgin Galactic nearly 20 years ago.
Branson says lawsuit is without merit “Despite close calls, loss of life and a questionable safety record, Mr. Branson was determined to become the first billionaire in space,” securing billionaire bragging rights and salvaging his travel business empire, which has lost nearly $1.9 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic, the complaint said. Branson and Virgin Galactic disputed the allegations in court in separate statements on Wednesday. Branson, through a spokesman, said the allegations are without merit and that he would “vigorously defend against them.” The suit is a derivative action, technically brought on behalf of a corporation against its leaders and owners.
MaiaSpace is working towards stage testingFrench launch company Maiaspace has announced that it is preparing to conduct the first hot-fire test of the Maia rocket’s upper stage in 2025. European Space Flight ReportThe company is developing a partially reusable, two-stage rocket called Maia that can carry up to 1,500 kilograms of payload when launched in a scalable configuration. The rocket will have two stages and will use the Prometheus rocket engine, which is being developed by Arianegroup under contract to the European Space Agency.
Is it a new space or an old space? … MaiaSpace is an interesting company. It is positioned as a launch startup, but is also a wholly owned subsidiary of ArianeGroup, a fairly traditional launch company. The first stage of the rocket is essentially a demonstrator for the Themis reusable booster, also developed by ArianeGroup under contract to ESA. (Posted by Ken the Bin)
