Rocket Report: SpaceX makes its mark on the Moon; ULA names new boss - Ars Technica

Welcome to Edition 9.07 of the Rocket Report! China’s workhorse Long March rocket family appears to be rebounding quickly from a rare launch failure August 10. Chinese officials have not publicly released any information on what may have caused the Long March 7A rocket to break apart less than 90 seconds after liftoff, but the rocket’s use of YF-100 engines initially raised questions about the failure’s impact on other Chinese rockets that use the same type of engines. But no biggie. YF-100 engines returned to flight six days later with the successful flight of a Long March 12 rocket, and the heavy-lift Long March 5—also with YF-100 engines—is set to launch in a few days with one of China’s most important space missions of the decade: the Chang’e 7 lunar lander en route to the Moon’s south pole.

Trouble in Taiwan. A prototype for a future satellite launch vehicle developed by Taiwan’s top weapons manufacturer veered off course shortly after liftoff Wednesday, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reports. The “trajectory anomaly” prompted the activation of the rocket’s self-destruct mechanism. The government agency responsible for the test flight, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), reported no injuries or property damage. Debris from the rocket fell into a planned safety control zone near the southern tip of Taiwan.

Parallel paths… Details about Wednesday’s rocket test are scarce, but the flight likely involved a sub-scale suborbital version of NCSIST’s planned military satellite launcher. The launch was the first test flight for the military’s satellite launch program, which focuses on developing a solid-fueled rocket to place small payloads into low-Earth orbit. At the same time, the civilian Taiwan Space Agency is developing a liquid-fueled satellite launcher that could be ready for orbital missions in the early 2030s.

Second failure for South Korea’s Innospace. A small suborbital rocket owned by South Korean startup Innospace lost control Thursday seconds into a test flight from Brazil’s Alcântara Space Center, the company said in a statement. The Brazilian Air Force, which runs the spaceport, activated the Sebit rocket’s flight termination system after it deviated from the planned trajectory. Innospace said there were no injuries or property damage. “While we regret that the planned flight could not be fully completed, the test flight provided valuable flight data from key systems, including the launch pad, propulsion system, and guidance, navigation and control (GNC),” Innospace said.

Hard times… Sebit is a “multipurpose suborbital rocket” designed to carry payloads up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) altitude, the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space. This was the second consecutive failure for Innospace, which attempted its first orbital launch from the same Brazilian spaceport in December. In a similar outcome to this week’s launch, Innospace’s Hanbit-Nano orbital rocket spun out of control seconds after liftoff.

Satellite operators fear launch crisis. SpaceX’s success with the Falcon 9 rocket helped open new avenues to orbit for a host of satellite startups. But the Falcon 9 may soon go away. SpaceX is eager to retire it in favor of the much larger, still unproven Starship rocket. This has led to consternation in the commercial satellite industry, Ars reports. There are growing concerns that SpaceX will largely focus on its own payloads—Starlink V3 satellites and orbital data centers—because of their potential to drive far greater profits. The Starship rocket’s Pez satellite dispenser, optimized for Starlink, is an indication of the company’s priorities.

Coming soon… SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell has previously said the operational lifetime of the Falcon 9 may end in 2030 or 2032. However, more recently, commercial satellite customers have been running into difficulties when trying to purchase a launch after 2028. One source said SpaceX has told the US government that it intends to end commercial launches after 2028 but will continue flying the Falcon 9 rocket for a limited number of federally contracted missions after that. Whether or not these dates stick, it has become clear to commercial satellite operators that they can no longer reliably plan their future around the workhorse Falcon 9.