united launch alliance
Welcome to edition 6.32 of Rocket Report! I’m writing this report again this week as Eric Berger is in Washington, D.C., to accept the prestigious 2024 Commercial Space Journalism Excellence Award from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. . Cape Canaveral is the world’s busiest spaceport, and three major U.S. launch companies were active there this week. SpaceX launched another her Falcon 9 rocket, and a few miles away, Blue Origin lifted its New Glenn rocket onto the launch pad for a long-awaited ground test. Nearby, United Launch Alliance began assembling the Atlas V rocket for the first crewed launch of Boeing Co.’s Starliner spacecraft in April. 2024 is shaping up to be a really exciting year for the spaceflight community.
As always, we We welcome reader contributions.If you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (this form does not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report includes information about small, medium, and heavy lift rockets, as well as a summary of the three upcoming launches on the calendar.
Astroscale test satellite launched by Rocket Lab. Astroscale, a well-capitalized Japanese startup, has launched a small satellite to do something that has never been done in space before, Ars reported. The new spacecraft, launched into orbit by Rocket Lab on February 18, will approach the decommissioned upper stage of Japan’s H-IIA rocket, which has been orbiting Earth for more than 15 years. Over the next few months, the satellite will move around the planet at about 8 miles per second, taking pictures and performing complex maneuvers to maneuver around the bus-sized H-IIA upper stage, while the rocket (7.6km/s).
This is my first time … Astroscale’s ADRAS-J mission is the first satellite designed to closely inspect space debris in orbit. This is a public-private partnership between Astroscale and the Japanese space agency. Of course, space agencies and private companies have demonstrated orbital rendezvous operations for decades. The difference here is that the H-IIA rocket is uncontrolled, likely tipping slowly as it spins, and is not designed to receive visitors. After Japan launched its climate monitoring satellite, it left it in orbit in January 2009 and never looked back. ADRAS-J is a technology demonstration that could pave the way for a subsequent mission to actually work with this H-IIA rocket and take it out of orbit. Astroscale eventually hopes to use these technologies for satellite maintenance, refueling, and further debris removal missions. (Submitted by Ken the Bin and Jay500001)
Firefly startup malfunctions are caused by software errors. firefly aerospace Update released on Tuesday Regarding the investigation into the upper stage failure that occurred on the company’s Alpha rocket in December. The investigation team, which included members from Firefly, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, Lockheed Martin, NASA, and the U.S. Space Force, concluded that a software error in the rocket’s guidance, navigation, and control software algorithms ultimately caused the accident. It was determined that it caused the After liftoff from California, the Alpha rocket releases its payload into a lower orbit than planned.
upper tier affliction… A software error prevented the rocket from sending the “required pulse commands” to control the upper stage thrusters before the main engine was scheduled to reignite. This second burn of her by the upper stage was supposed to make the rocket’s trajectory circular, but it didn’t happen as planned. Still, the Alpha rocket safely released a commercial satellite payload for Lockheed Martin. Although the satellite’s lower orbit caused it to re-enter the atmosphere earlier this month, Lockheed Martin said it was able to accomplish many of the objectives of the technology demonstration mission, which focused on testing an electronically steered antenna. Announced. This is the fourth launch of the Alpha rocket, two of which have suffered upper stage failures during engine restarts. Firefly said it is preparing the next Alpha rocket flight “in the coming months.” (Submitted by Ken the Bin)
It was a good funding round for Gilmour Space. Australian startup Gilmour Space Technologies has raised A$55 million ($36 million) in a Series D funding round announced on Monday. Space news coverage. The funding will support the small launch vehicle startup’s campaign to build, test and launch rockets and satellites from Bowen Orbital Spaceport in northern Queensland. Gilmore Space, founded in 2012, is developing a three-stage rocket called Eris. The first Eris test flight is scheduled “in the coming months, pending launch approval from the Australian Space Agency,” according to a Gilmore Space news release.
Launch from below… Gilmore Space aims to launch the first Australian-made rocket into orbit later this year. The Eris rocket has a hybrid engine and can carry a payload mass of about 670 pounds (305 kilograms) into a sun-synchronous orbit, Gilmore said. The $36 million funding round announced this week follows a $46 million funding round in 2021. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Gilmore Space is aiming for Eris’ first flight in April, and this funding should give the company enough money to conduct four test flights. (Submitted by Ken the Bin)
