Rocket Report: ULA flies into uncertain future; Falcon 9 family hits 700 launches - Ars Technica

Welcome to Edition 9.11 of the Rocket Report! The most interesting story of the week, in our view, is a deep dive by Stephen Clark, linked below, into the dwindling fortunes of United Launch Alliance. As recently as a decade ago, the launch company, co-owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, could claim dominance over the US industry. But those glory days are fading fast. So what’s next for a company that is tied to an expendable rocket?

Avio seeks to cash in on Falcon 9 retreat. Italian launch services provider Avio has seen an influx of customers who were unable to secure launch opportunities with SpaceX, European Spaceflight reports. “I can tell you SpaceX has already gone captive because we have a whole bunch of customers coming to us and saying, ‘Oh my God, can you fly us?’” Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo said during the company’s September 10 earnings call. In recent months, SpaceX told multiple prospective customers that it was no longer accepting new orders for commercial Falcon 9 launches.

Europe’s answer to this, a subsidy? … According to Ranzo, some customers who had been turned away by SpaceX used the International Space Summit in Paris last week to lobby European institutions for financial support that would help offset the higher cost of launching with a European provider. Although prices for Avio’s Vega C rocket are not public, it likely costs about $60 million for a launch on the solid-fueled rocket. In our view, subsidizing launches on expendable launch technology is a poor plan. The continent should increase investment in developers of more competitively priced rockets.

Vega C successfully lofts two satellites. Speaking of Avio, a Vega C rocket launched on Tuesday from French Guiana, successfully carrying the European Space Agency’s FLEX Earth Explorer satellite and the Copernicus Sentinel-3C into low-Earth orbit. It was just the second launch of the Italian-made Vega rocket this year. A new launch adapter called Vespa allowed both satellites to be stacked inside the rocket’s fairing, the European Space Agency said.

Two for the price of one … An evolution of Europe’s Vega family of rockets, Vega-C can launch 2.3 metric tons into low-Earth orbit. “Preparing and launching two satellites together is no easy task,” ESA’s director of Earth observation programs, Simonetta Cheli, said. “My thanks go to the many experts who have contributed throughout both satellites’ development, testing, and preparation for launch, and who have worked tirelessly to ensure that both satellites have reached orbit safely.”

French company test-fires new rocket engine. French launch startup Sirius Space Services has successfully test-fired a complete prototype of its STAR-1 rocket engine for the first time, European Spaceflight reports. The company announced the milestone on Sunday, stating that it had conducted the first hot-fire tests of the complete STAR-1 engine at Airborne Engineering’s propulsion test facility in southern England.

Playing a starring role … According to the company, the testing included multiple successful ignitions. These tests marked the first time that all of the engine’s critical subsystems had operated together. These included the turbopumps, combustion chamber, injector plate, avionics, and software. The liquid oxygen and methane-fueled STAR-1 is designed to produce 55 kN of thrust. The engine will be used across the company’s planned family of launch vehicles, which will use a common core stage featuring nine STAR-1 engines.

China launches four rockets in two days. China carried out four launches in quick succession, starting Tuesday, using its Jiuquan and Hainan spaceports and a maritime mission from the East China Sea, Space News reports. The rockets were: LandSpace’s Zhuque-2E; Orienspace’s Gravity-1; the Chinese space agency’s Long March 12; and ExPace’s Kuaizhou-11. The launches occurred within 44 hours of one another.

A maturing commercial industry … Notably, three of the four launches were from commercial or quasi-commercial entities distinct from the Chinese government. This highlights the growth of the country’s commercial space industry and suggests that the buildout of constellations in China will no longer depend on the country’s traditional fleet of Long March rockets. The industry, as well, is moving rapidly from rocket test flights to operational missions.