The Rocket Launch Nobody Was Expecting | This Week in Spaceflight

[00:01] flight before the end of the year. The exploration company tests its future orbital capsule and teases a new heavy launcher. Rocket Lab's Neutron rocket is closer to flight, and another reusable

[00:13] without warning. As always, we'll have all that and more coming up this week in all that and more coming up this week in Spaceflight.

[00:33] Glenn on the pad just last week, Blue Origin officials have declared that they want to return to flight before the end of this year. This challenge was announced by CEO Dave Limp on social media just a few days after the

[00:45] explosion. In the update, Limp cleared up some doubts and concerns that we all had, but his comments also created more questions. The good news is that the tank farm is still in good shape. Though it'd be interesting to know more about

[00:57] that dented methane tank that we saw from the air. These tanks take a long time to source, and it's extremely expensive to source new tanks of this size quickly. For example, we've seen SpaceX sourcing large tanks from halfway

[01:10] propellant capacity at its Starship sites. It's just that difficult. Interestingly, the support tower that was right next to the rocket is repairable despite the big bent column on the side that was facing the rocket,

[01:23] and the scorched water tower is also good as well. Limp also mentioned that including the booster never tell me the odds, looked good as well. We just don't know if it all looks good like the

[01:35] dented methane tank on the tank farm or looks good as in everything is completely intact. Limp also clarified that the company was not moving directly to the upcoming New Glenn 9x4, and that their intention was to continue with New

[01:48] Glenn 7x2 production and store the stages in the meantime. The intriguing part was that apparently the reconstruction of the pad won't need a new transporter erector as according to Limp, they had already been working on

[02:00] eliminating horizontal integration and instead moving to vertical integration. This, along with other key elements of the pad still being useful, makes the challenge of returning back to flight less daunting, but it's still quite a

[02:13] challenge. Thanks to our Space Coast Live cameras, we've already started to see cranes deployed at Launch Complex 36 working on that cleanup process. Company founder Jeff Bezos posted a couple of pictures on X showing personnel at the

[02:26] damaged launch pad ramp and inside the pad hanger with a view of the aft end of Never Tell Me the Odds. This cleanup and rebuilding process is critical for the US government, especially for NASA's interests with the Artemis program. So

[02:39] much so that just the day after the explosion, NASA administrator Jared facilities on the Space Coast talking directly with Bezos and Limp as well as with the rest of the company and seeing the damaged pad first hand. Isaacman has

[02:53] been very vocal since then that NASA will try to help Blue Origin's return to flight and fulfillment of its Artemis contracts in whatever way possible. This even includes Isaacman suggesting that the company's Blue Moon lunar lander may

[03:05] not end up flying on New Glenn. Whether this happens or not is probably in the coming weeks and months as Blue continues to work on the launch pad while also trying to meet its aggressive timeline. Something to look forward to

[03:18] for future episodes. It's been a big week for European station is quickly becoming the destination of choice for nations looking to put their astronauts in orbit. Two announcements were made this

[03:32] week, so let's start in France where Vast signed a deal with the French government for two separate missions, both planned for 2027. The deal was signed at the Choose France Summit in Paris and covers both a flight to the

[03:45] International Space Station and a seat on what Vast hopes will be the world's first commercial space station, Haven 1. France's pick for the ISS mission is Thomas Pesquet, who currently holds the European record for the total time in

[03:58] space. He's flown to orbit twice, chalking up more than 396 days in space and almost 40 hours spent outside the station during six spacewalks. Pesquet last visited the station in 2021 aboard the Crew 2 mission, when he became the

[04:12] first French astronaut to command the ISS. He's an experienced airline pilot and is currently training as a flight test pilot with Airbus. By contrast, Haven 1 seat will go to someone with a very different profile. Arnaud Prost is

[04:25] a European Space Agency reserve astronaut who just completed his basic astronaut reserve training last month. So, Haven 1 will actually be his first space flight. Prost is also a test pilot and a fighter pilot who led air-to-air

[04:38] tests for France's Rafale combat jet. He now commands an E-3F AWACS aircraft, an airborne radar command plane. The Vast station is currently being assembled in Long Beach, California, and is scheduled to launch next year. The week's second

[04:51] astronaut announcement comes from the UK, where Vast signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK Space Agency on June 2nd. The agreement would put British astronaut John McFall aboard Haven 1 as early as 2027, but this is

[05:05] committed to helping Vast find sponsorships to fund the mission, so the seat exists on paper, but the money to pay for it has yet to materialize. And interested in making it happen, I'm sure Vast would love to take your call. And

[05:20] tell them that I sent you. McFall is a former Paralympian who competed as a sprinter at the 2008 Beijing games and went on to become a surgeon for Britain's National Health Service. He lost his right leg in a motorcycle

[05:32] accident at age 19 and was selected by the European Space Agency for its Fly Project in 2022. This is a pioneering effort to explore how astronauts with physical disabilities could undertake long duration missions. McFall was

[05:45] medically cleared for a long duration mission last year and would become the first person with a physical disability to live long-term in orbit. Now, you may first person with a prosthesis to reach orbit in 2021, albeit briefly, on the

[06:02] This was the first all-civilian orbital flight, and she did so with an internal titanium prosthesis in her leg, the result of childhood bone cancer treatment. Now, if McFall does make it to orbit, and we sure hope that he does,

[06:14] he'll be the first British astronaut in since Tim Peake returned to Earth a decade earlier in 2016. With France on board and the UK knocking on the door, Haven-1 is starting to look less like a private outpost and more like an

[06:26] international port of call. We'll continue to watch this space, and if you want to stay on top of these updates, you know what to do. Like this episode won't miss a thing. There's a lot coming up in spaceflight to look forward to.

[06:40] significant milestone and is now physically attached to the lander hardware that will carry it to the moon. Fresh from its first test drive here on Earth just a couple of weeks ago, Flip has been stacked and integrated onto the

[06:53] cone and ramps of the Griffin lander at Astrobotic's facility. Griffin Mission 1 is now officially designated as NASA's Moon Base 2 mission. It's targeting a launch no earlier than November this year aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from

[07:06] the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lander is bound for the Nobile crater region near the lunar South Pole, and as NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman noted during the Moon Base announcement, Griffin will mark another milestone when

[07:19] >> Moon Base 2 will be the largest commercial payload delivered to the lunar surface ever. Though in this Moon Base endeavor, we certainly hope to be mission. >> That's over 1,100 lb or 500 kg of cargo,

[07:34] including the Flip rover. Flip will help to support future lunar terrain vehicles surface. This week Voyager Technologies announced that it's acquiring Astrobotic for up to $300 million.

[07:47] Voyager is the American aerospace company behind the Starlab commercial space station. It's been developing Starlab alongside Airbus as one of the successors to the International Space Station and is currently targeted for

[07:59] launch around 2028. This is a company already building infrastructure for low Earth orbit, now reaching further out all the way to the moon. The deal is expected to close by early July, meaning Astrobotic is likely to be under new

[08:12] ownership before Griffin even leaves the ground. Voyager has confirmed that Astrobotic's Pittsburgh headquarters will remain at the heart of their lunar program. Snapping up Astrobotic makes a lot of strategic sense, adding lunar

[08:24] lander capability and lunar surface power systems to their armory. This is exactly the kind of hardware that you need to be a serious player in cislunar infrastructure, rather than just in orbit. Griffin is one of several landers

[08:37] months. Intuitive Machines and Firefly are also targeting missions before the end of the year, as was Blue Origin until last week's anomaly at the pad. New Glenn is contracted to carry the Endurance lander on NASA's Moon Base One

[08:51] mission, though it may now fly after Griffin. And on the subject of shuffling, Griffin was originally contracted to carry NASA's VIPER rover, which was later canceled in July of 2024 due to ballooning costs and Flip took

[09:04] over its place. VIPER has since been revived and last September NASA awarded a contract to Blue Origin to carry it to the lunar South Pole in late 2027. Whichever order they fly in, it's great to see Flip is now ready for its own

[09:17] ride as we look forward to a busy second half of the year for lunar missions. stories across space, including a reversal of NASA's recent decisions. In announcements at an event called Ignition regarding not only the Artemis

[09:33] program, but also its lower Earth orbit program, which includes commercial Leo destinations. The program meant to help develop a new set of private stations where NASA can be one of many customers. In that event, NASA stated that they

[09:47] weren't seeing the commercial market for private stations and proposed a change to this program. This change involved acquiring a new module that would attach to the ISS, to which other modules from commercial companies could dock and gain

[10:01] experience. This new module would then allow them to separate from the station and build up their own stations while still maintaining US presence in lower Earth orbit. That apparently did not sit well with the station companies who had

[10:13] criticisms against this solution. Some thought it was too restrictive and others opposed it as they believe that there is an actual market for private stations. NASA had released a request for information the same day of that

[10:25] ignition event to gather this feedback. So, here we are, two months later and now with that feedback in mind, what has NASA done? As you guessed, reverse their decision. This week agency spokesperson Bethany Stevens confirmed on X that the

[10:40] commercial companies gave enough feedback to make the case for NASA being just one customer among many and thus the agency is proceeding with the original commercial strategy. Moreover, finally, NASA will be releasing a draft

[10:53] weeks, which should hopefully lead to a final contract award in the coming months. Let's see if things go smoother from here on out. NASA not only had to say goodbye to that commercial station proposal, but also

[11:06] had to say goodbye to one of its science missions around Mars. On June 3rd, the agency officially declared the end of the Maven mission following unsuccessful attempts to recover the spacecraft. Maven, which stands for Mars atmosphere

[11:18] and volatile evolution, launched from Earth all the way back in November of 2013. The spacecraft's main mission was to study Mars's atmosphere and its something key to understanding the mechanism by which Mars lost its

[11:32] atmosphere over time, since it's believed that in the early days it was thick enough to support liquid water on the Martian surface. Maven completed its primary mission years ago and was most recently used as a communications relay

[11:45] satellite. However, in December of last year NASA lost contact with the spacecraft and the last glimpse of telemetry showed that it was spinning at determination and planning for a recovery of the spacecraft, the agency

[11:58] has now determined that it's not in a recoverable state and therefore any useless. NASA is still assessing the root cause and is working with the information that it has to understand what happened to Maven. However, this

[12:12] also means that NASA no longer has a communications relay satellite on Mars, forcing it to use even older satellites around the red planet for this task. This all makes an even stronger case for a new Mars telecommunications network

[12:25] like the one that the agency wants to launch in the coming years. Preparations for NASA's next Artemis mission, Artemis 3, continue at pace. transport to the Kennedy Space Center

[12:38] segments that were still in storage at the company's facilities in Promontory, Utah. Our very own Justin Davenport was at a celebratory event held where this journey began. At the event officials

[12:50] from NASA and North of Grumman were present and gave some updates on the timeline for stacking and testing ahead of the launch of Artemis 3. SLS Deputy Program Manager Chris Cianciola stated that the plan for these boosters will be

[13:03] to start stacking on the mobile launcher this summer. Then the completed core stage will be installed in between the boosters and the stack will be rolled out to launch complex 39B for a wet dress rehearsal. It won't be until after

[13:15] this rehearsal that Orion will be mated with SLS and readied for launch. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman already hinted at this possibility prior to the launch of Artemis 2, stating that a cryo test would be performed ahead of Artemis

[13:28] 3. This plan seems to still be in place given the update from CN Ciona, and it also means that we may see a rather weird SLS stack on the pad with no upper stage and no Orion spacecraft on board. Of course, the timing of exactly when

[13:42] Artemis 3 will occur depends on the development of the human landing systems by SpaceX and Blue Origin. NASA intends to announce the mission's crew next week, and according to Isaacman, the agency will also provide a confidence

[13:55] You can bet that we'll be covering that on our next episode of this week in United Launch Alliance has stacked the first Leo optimized Centaur 5 this week, dubbed the 85K Centaur. It's the first time this brand new upper stage has ever

[14:10] been assembled in flight configuration. It was stacked atop a Vulcan rocket in vertical integration facility A as ULA prepares the first Vulcan to launch constellation. So, why the new upper stage? Well, Vulcan standard Centaur 5

[14:25] is a high-energy workhorse designed for demanding missions to deep space or high orbits. Amazon satellites, however, are only going to low Earth orbit, so all that extra propellant capacity is unnecessary. The 85K variant is about 6

[14:39] ft or 1.8 m shorter and carries a third less propellant. That saved mass goes straight towards carrying more satellites on every flight. But, the stage doesn't just have trim tanks. It also has new propellant management

[14:52] avionics and updated ground support interfaces, too. Because this is new hardware, ULA is planning to conduct a partially loaded as well as a full wet dress rehearsal at Slick 41 before this mission flies. Vulcan was recently

[15:05] grounded following an anomaly with the Northrop Grumman GEM 63 XL solid rocket boosters in February, even though it successfully placed its payload into orbit. The rocket shares the same BE-4 engines that power New Glenn's first

[15:17] stage, and it's currently unclear if Blue Origin's static fire anomaly last week will impact Vulcan. Stacking the rocket is certainly a good sign that the program is pressing ahead and we're looking forward to seeing Vulcan take to

[15:29] the skies once again. Archimedes, meet Neutron. Neutron, meet Archimedes. For the first time, Rocket Lab has integrated its Archimedes engine with a Neutron stage one thrust structure. A feat that puts the company

[15:42] just one step closer to launch. While stage one main tanks and structures are still suffering development issues, it seems like the rocket's thrust structure is being developed at pace. It's now led to this major milestone between engine

[15:55] and rocket, verifying the connections in between them are built to spec and are Rocket Lab to test techniques and tooling for engine installation. And in pictures, we rocket nerds get a peek inside what's probably one of the most

[16:10] complex parts of a rocket, its engine section. It'll be interesting to see how developments progress and hopefully it won't be long from now until we see Neutron fly. And while we have France, the French

[16:22] rocket startup Latitude hit a major milestone in the development of its Zéphir launch vehicle this week. Zéphir is a two-stage 19-m tall small satellite launcher. It's roughly the same height as Rocket Lab's Electron, though a

[16:35] little wider and capable of carrying up to 200 kg to low Earth orbit. This week, Latitude announced that its Navier engine has completed its first fully integrated hot fire test at the company's Titan research and test center

[16:48] in Vatry. The engine includes 3D printed hardware and is powered by a turbo pump designed, assembled, and partially built in-house by Latitude. The engine burns liquid kerosene and oxygen for propellants and successfully fired twice

[17:01] in just a few days, each burn lasting around 15 seconds. The goal is to startup, hitting a first stable operating point, and collecting data across the whole propulsion system. Seven of these Navier engines will power

[17:14] Zéphir's first stage, so getting this first one right is an essential first step. A full test campaign is now underway with longer full power burns ahead. So, we'll keep our eyes on this test stand for further progress.

[17:26] Latitude is targeting a first launch in 2027 from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. The company has committed 8 million euros towards a new shared being built by the French Space Agency CNES.

[17:40] The exploration company just checked off a critical milestone on its road to the middle of the Mojave desert. The company's building a reusable cargo capsule called Nyx. Measuring roughly 4 m in diameter, it's designed to carry up

[17:54] to 4,000 kg of cargo to orbit and return around 3,000 kg back to Earth. Nyx is being developed as a launcher agnostic alternative to existing vehicles such as SpaceX's Dragon, which it's roughly comparable to in size and down mass. The

[18:10] demonstration flight to the ISS around 2028. This week, the company completed a dedicated drop test of the Nyx parachute recovery system to specifically validate the handover from drogue to main parachutes. This transition is one of

[18:25] the most demanding phases of any capsule recovery, and failures there have complicated or ended missions in the past, so getting this right is crucial. Rather than dropping a full Nyx mock-up, the team built a purpose-built drop test

[18:38] vehicle engineered to replicate the capsule's mass, aerodynamic profile, and structural interfaces. A helicopter lifted the mock-up to around 9,000 ft, about 2.8 km, before releasing it. The drogue parachutes deployed on cue,

[18:53] on schedule, and the vehicle enjoyed a nominal descent. The vehicle behavior matched all pretest predictions, making this a clear success. The team deliberately chose a land drop zone over an ocean site so they could make a

[19:07] faster recovery. And that also means faster data and faster iteration. The company has also already performed splashdown tests, as well as vibration They're also developing a heavy-lift rocket called Irene, which may even be

[19:22] the launcher that ends up carrying next to space. Irene will be powered by nine reusable and high-thrust engines that they're calling Storm. Curiously, most of these references have since been removed from their website for more

[19:34] vague counterparts, but the exploration company plans to reveal further details next week. So, we'll bring you more information when we have it. This is your weekly space traffic report provided by Next Spaceflight. It's been

[19:46] an active week in launches starting with the seventh operational launch of Amazon Leo satellites on board ULA's Atlas V rocket. This brought the total number of Amazon Leo satellites launched into orbit to 331, although a small number of

[20:00] them have already reentered, presumably due to issues encountered after their launch. This was also the penultimate launch of the Atlas V rocket in its 551 configuration. The last launch of that configuration should occur next month

[20:12] with the last batch of Amazon Leo satellites, and after that, the only Atlas V rockets remaining will all be for Starliner launches. Now, that wasn't the week. In fact, almost all launches around the world were in support of such

[20:26] satellites. Aside from the Atlas V launch, we also had three Starlink launches from the United States carrying 77 Starlink V2 mini satellites into orbit. There were also four launches from China, one of them including four

[20:39] Guowang test satellites for future direct-to-cell applications, similar to SpaceX's Starlink direct-to-cell or AST SpaceMobile's Bluebird satellites. The other launches carried batches of Qian Fan internet satellites with a total of

[20:51] 200 of them now having been launched into orbit. The surprising thing from these Qian Fan launches is that one of them happened completely without warning and on a brand new rocket. We mentioned this rocket, the Chang Zheng 12B, on our

[21:04] rolled out to the pad and that it could be launching soon, but who knew it would be that soon. The reason why we had no idea is because there were none of the present for other launches. These are useful to know when upcoming launches

[21:19] occur, not just in China, but also elsewhere in the world. It's intriguing why these weren't posted for this particular launch and that they still decided to launch anyways. This rocket's debut is yet another sign that Chinese

[21:31] companies and agencies across the country are getting ready for a future of reusable rockets. The Chang Zheng 12B is just another in a long list of recent rockets with their sights set on reusability. While it didn't perform a

[21:44] landing attempt on this mission, the rocket's first stage did carry mock-up landing legs to gather real-life data on their aerodynamics and a set of grid fins to test their deployment in space prior to re-entry. According to the

[21:56] manufacturer of the Chang Zheng 12B, the design, construction, and qualification of the rocket for flight took just 21 months, a record for the country's spaceflight industry. And there are more Chinese reusable rockets still planned

[22:09] to debut in the coming months and years, so don't be surprised if more appear in future space traffic reports. Another vehicle in this week's space traffic is Varda Space's Winnebago 4 spacecraft. We talked about it in previous episodes

[22:21] about how the first Winnebago spacecraft built in-house failed in orbit and how its failure had paved the way for the success of the Winnebago 5 and Winnebago 6 missions. Well, as the saying goes, what goes up must come down and that was

[22:35] also true for that failed Winnebago 4 spacecraft. On June 1st, the spacecraft made an uncontrolled re-entry over Wick, Scotland. Since this vehicle was meant wouldn't be surprising if it did just

[22:48] that or at least big pieces of it. So, needless to say, if you happen to find about it. Going into next week, it'll be another busy one with lots of launches. launches on tap for next week with one of these launches carrying a pair of

[23:03] Starshield satellites. Rocket Lab is expected to launch one of its suborbital performing another hypersonic test launch for an undisclosed customer. From China, Landspace will again be flying

[23:15] its improved Zhuque-2E methalox rocket, and the large Chang Zheng 5 will again fly from Wenchang with a yet unknown payload. We should also see the debut flight of a new configuration of Japan's H3 rocket, the H330 rocket. This variant

[23:30] carries three LE-9 engines on the first stage instead of two, allowing the rocket to fly without the need for solid rocket boosters. This launch will also failure that took place last December, when the rocket's payload adapter failed

[23:43] mid-flight, releasing the payload and damaging the upper stage in the process. time around. As always, the launch schedule could change, so we recommend nextspaceflight.com, or download the nextspaceflight app on

[23:56] your phone to keep up-to-date with the space [music] traffic. And that's your weekly update of spaceflight news. I'm Alicia Seegel for NSF, and we'll see you all again next week to recap this week in spaceflight.