Small Lift Rockets

Blue Origin completes second human flight. Although the launch was delayed nearly an hour due to unspecified issues, Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft successfully took off from West Texas on Wednesday morning and safely landed 10 minutes and 18 seconds later. The capsule crested at an altitude of 107 km, Ars reports. This was Blue Origin's second human spaceflight and garnered widespread attention because among the crew was Star Trek actor William Shatner, a guest of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
An inspired James T. Kirk ... "That’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before," Shatner said upon landing. "Everybody in the world needs to do this." Blue Origin will now target one more crew flight in 2021, with six yet unnamed passengers, likely to take place in December. The cadence for human suborbital missions should ramp up to 6 to 12 passenger flights in 2022. The main impediment to increasing cadence is believed to be heat shield refurbishment—there is plenty of demand from customers, even at prices of $1 million and higher for a seat on early missions.

Astra explains failure, sets next launch date. The small-rocket company based in California, still striving to reach orbit, has set a target date of October 27 for its next launch attempt. The rocket, simply named "LV0007," will carry a test payload weighing a few dozen kilograms for the US Space Force. This will be the company's fourth attempt to reach orbit—and it comes as other small launch competitors are either successfully orbiting their rockets or soon to make their first attempts, Ars reports.

Fourth time's the charm ... This week Astra chief engineer Benjamin Lyon provided more information about the company's last launch attempt in late August. "The issue we encountered was something we hadn’t seen before," Lyon wrote. "Leading up to liftoff, the first stage propellant distribution system provides the rocket with fuel and oxidizer. We designed the system to quickly disconnect and seal when the rocket lifts off. On this launch, propellants leaked from the system, mixed, and became trapped in an enclosed space beneath the interface between the rocket and the launcher." As a result one engine shut off, and the rocket drifted sideways before ascending. (submitted by ivekadi)

Chinese rocket tests grid fins. China's Long March 2D rocket successfully sent the Chinese H-alpha Solar Explorer and 10 other satellites into orbit on Thursday. The rocket's new configuration allowed it to deploy more than 10 satellites for the first time while the first stage also included grid fins to constrain the expected drop zone of the stage downrange, Space News reports.

Expected to greatly exceed launch goal ... This was the country's 37 orbital mission in 2021. At the beginning of the year, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation aimed to launch more than 40 times in 2021, with commercial launch providers adding to this total. With yet another launch on Friday of the Shenzhou-13 crew to the Chinese space station, that goal seems well in hand for the year. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Nova Scotia spaceport targeting "end of 2023" launch. Steve Matier, president and CEO of Maritime Launch Services, held a meeting with local industry leaders earlier this month to provide an update about the proposed Canso spaceport. The project remains subject to a Canadian government environmental review and must satisfy a number of conditions such as water monitoring and wildlife management before it can proceed, the Guysborough Journal reports.

Paperwork before site work ... "If you’re looking for the launch date, I’m targeting the end of 2023," Matier said. "That’s 18 months of construction, that’s six months of commissioning to be able to get there. Will I be able to break ground tomorrow? No. Do I want to break ground tomorrow? Yeah. But that capability isn’t there because we need that partnership with the province to be able to get there." A primary tenant has yet to be identified for the commercial launch facility. (submitted by JS)

Norwegian spaceport gets government go-ahead. The spaceport will receive $42.9 million from the Norwegian government to prepare a new facility for the launch of orbital rockets, SpaceWatch Global reports. The goal is to be ready for a launch attempt from Andøya, in northern Norway, as early as the third quarter of 2022.

Two companies eager to fly ... To obtain the funding, the Andøya spaceport operators had to document that the facility would provide a return on investment commensurate with what a private investor would receive. Two European launch companies, Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg, have already signed agreements to fly their small satellite rockets from the facility. (submitted by LF and SvenErik1968)

Chinese firm conducts launch, landing test. Deep Blue Aerospace completed a 100-meter vertical launch and landing test with its Nebula M1 test stage Wednesday, Space News reports. The test occurred at a facility at Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province, and after reaching its peak altitude, the rocket made a powered descent and vertical landing. The Nebula M1 has a variable thrust Leiting-5 electric-pump-fed kerolox engine.

A small, reusable rocket ... Footage from the test shows liftoff occurring with landing legs already deployed. The Nebula M1 hovers over the launch and landing area before bouncing after initial touchdown. However, it appears to have remained upright at the end of the video. The test is part of the development of the 2.25-meter-diameter Nebula-1 orbital launcher, with a planned first flight in 2023. The Nebula-1 is designed to be capable of lifting 500 kg to a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Skyroot completes $11 million funding round. The Indian launch company says the funding will be used to acquire new talent and complete the development of its Vikram-1 launch vehicle. The company aims to reach orbit with "90 percent less development cost than its competitors," as early as next year. In the future the company seeks to raise an additional $40 million, according to a news release.

Three year-old company, three rockets ... Founded in 2018 by former Indian Space Research Organization scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, Skyroot Aerospace has previously successfully tested its own liquid-fueled rocket engine as well as a solid rocket stage. The company presently has three different "Vikram" rockets under development. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

A small Japanese rocket is delayed again. The launch of a solid-fueled Japanese Epsilon rocket with nine small satellites has been grounded until after the flight of a larger H-2A launcher later this month, Spaceflight Now reports. The Epsilon rocket was supposed to blast off September 30 (US time) from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture. Officials scrubbed that launch attempt less than a minute before liftoff due to a balky connector on a mobile radar tracking system.

Out of the way for H-2A ... After working toward a second launch attempt on October 6, managers called off the countdown because of unfavorable high-altitude winds over the space center. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said that the near-term weather forecast was “not suitable” for launch of the Epsilon rocket. Facing unfavorable weather conditions, JAXA decided to ground the Epsilon rocket until after the liftoff of a previously scheduled Japanese H-2A rocket October 24. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Medium Lift Rockets

Webb telescope arrives for December launch. After keeping its precise shipping date and route under wraps due to a fear of pirates, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope arrived safely in French Guiana this week. Work can now proceed toward launching the $10 billion scientific instrument on an Ariane 5 rocket no earlier than December 18.

Shallow rivers, deep space ... According to the European Space Agency, Webb arrived from California on board the MN Colibri, which sailed the Panama Canal to French Guiana. The shallow Kourou River was specially dredged to ensure a clear passage and the vessel followed high tide to safely reach port. There is one more Ariane 5 launch, of two commercial satellites, that must go well before the Webb mission takes place. This mission is presently scheduled for October 22. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

SpaceX reaches a valuation of $100 billion. The valuation of SpaceX crossed $100 billion following a share sale by existing investors announced this week, CNBC reports. SpaceX has an agreement with new and existing investors to sell up to $755 million in stock from insiders at $560 a share, according to multiple people familiar with the deal, increasing the company’s valuation to $100.3 billion.

It's good to be good at rockets ... The company did not raise new capital at this time, sources said, with the purchase offer representing a secondary sale of existing shares. The new share price represents an increase of 33 percent from SpaceX’s last valuation of $74 billion at $419.99 a share in February, when the company raised nearly $1.2 billion.

OneWeb looks to Indian rockets for future launches. Up until now, OneWeb has launched its low Earth orbit internet satellites on Russian Soyuz rockets procured by Arianespace. Now, The Economic Times reports, OneWeb has entered into an agreement with India’s space agency to launch satellites aboard the country’s heaviest launch vehicle GSLV-MK III along with its workhorse PSLV.

First commercial flights on GSLV ... According to the publication, India will start launching satellites for OneWeb by the middle of 2022. Bharti Airtel, an India-based telecommunications company, is the largest shareholder in UK-based OneWeb. With this agreement, OneWeb will become the first private company to launch satellites using Isro’s GSLV MK III launch vehicle, which has a capacity to launch up to 10 tons into low Earth orbit. (submitted by EllPeaTea, ivekadi, and Ken the Bin)

Heavy Lift Rockets

Starship needs a lot of fuel. Where will it come from? An environmental document that needs US Federal Aviation Administration approval before SpaceX can begin testing the world’s largest rockets is missing key details about where its fuel will come from, TechCrunch reports. The draft programmatic environmental assessment document covers construction and daily operations at SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility in Texas, which Musk is hoping to incorporate as a city called Starbase. These include preflight operations, rocket tests, launches and landings, as well as fuel, water, and electricity supplies.

Power needed ... A new pre-treatment system will purify and cool natural gas into liquid methane fuel for the Starship and Super Heavy rockets. Much more gas will be needed for a new 250 megawatt gas-fired power station. A power plant this big typically serves over 100,000 homes and can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But while rocket launches get a lot of coverage in the draft assessment, the new power plant receives only a short mention. In particular, it is unclear how the tens of millions of cubic feet of gas required daily will get to SpaceX’s remote facility near the Mexican border. (submitted by Something Witty and Ken the Bin)

Environmentalists say SpaceX closes access to Texas beach too often. Upset by frequent beach closures to accommodate tests by SpaceX, Texas environmentalists filed a lawsuit in Cameron County state court that claims the practice violates the state’s constitution, Reuters reports. SaveRGV alleges in its complaint that the repeated closure of the Boca Chica Beach, an 8-mile stretch of sand near the city of Brownsville, for rocket tests and launches violates their constitutionally guaranteed right to access public beaches in their state.

Sands through the hourglass ... The lawsuit, which says the beach has been closed to accommodate SpaceX for up to 450 hours per year since 2019, names the Texas General Land Office, its commissioner George P. Bush, and Cameron County as defendants. The clash between nonprofit SaveRGV, government agencies, and SpaceX has grabbed local and national headlines. CBS’s 60 Minutes aired a segment in August on the controversy. The Texas General Land Office and Cameron County did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The company told 60 Minutes it was committed to working cooperatively to resolve the matter. (submitted by JohnCarter17)