Tag: commercial

South Korean rocket startup Innospace details successful tests of its portable launchpad

9:39 am

Engineering test prototype during tests
Click for original image.

The South Korean rocket startup Innospace has now provided some additional details about its testing of the portable launchpad and strongback that it will use on its first planned rocket launch in July 2025.

The Launch Pad-Vehicle Interface Integrated System Test comprehensively verifies the operational readiness of the launch vehicle and launch pad, covering processes from vehicle assembly and pad integration to vertical erection, propellant supply system checks, and final operational validation. During the test, INNOSPACE confirmed the mechanical and electrical interfaces between the launch pad and vehicle, the transporter erector launcher system, the detachment of the Umbilical, the fuel and oxidizer supply system, and the separation of the launch vehicle hold-down mechanism, ensuring technical reliability and operational stability.

The launch pad that successfully completed the test, is scheduled for maritime transportation to the Alcântara Space Center in Brazil on April 2. Upon arrival in May, it will undergo installation and final verification in the local environment to complete preparations for launch operations. In addition, the launch vehicle used in this test was the HANBIT-Nano Qualification Model (QM), which shares the same specifications—21.8 meters in height and 1.4 meters in diameter—as the Flight Model (FM) scheduled for launch in July.

The company will still need to do these same tests in Brazil at its Alcântara spaceport using the actual rocket, dubbed Hanbit-Nano, before the launch can occur. Thus. meeting that July target date is likely difficult if not impossible. At the same time it does appear the company has a chance of launching before the end of this year.

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China and SpaceX complete launches

9:03 am

Two more launches since yesterday. First, SpaceX successfully launched a National Reconnaissance Office classified surveillance satellite, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off shortly before midnight from Vandenberg in California.

The first stage not only completed its fourth flight, landing back at Vandenberg, it did so setting a new record for the shortest turnaround from its previous flight, only ten days previously. The fairings completed their fourth and seventh flights respectively.

China then followed, with its pseudo-company Galactic Energy placing six weather satellites into orbit, its solid-fueled Ceres-1 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China. China’s state run press provided no information on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. This was the second launch for Galactic Energy this week, and the nineteenth overall, making it the most successful Chinese pseudo-company. That its rocket is solid-fueled tells us that it is based on missile technology, which also tells us that the company is not really an independent company as we conceive it in the west, but closely controlled and supervised by China’s military.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

33 SpaceX
14 China
4 Russia
4 Rocket Lab

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successfully launches, 33 to 25.

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NASA’s still undecided as to Starliner’s next flight

9:27 am

Starliner docked to ISS
Starliner docked to ISS.

Though it now appears that the management at both NASA and Boeing are still committed to getting Boeing’s manned Starliner capsule certified for commercial flights, NASA remains undecided as to the scope and nature of the capsule’s next test flight.

[T]esting will be a big part of the next Starliner flight, whenever it lifts off. “We need to make sure we can eliminate the helium leaks; eliminate the service module thruster issues that we had on docking,” [said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program].

NASA has not yet decided whether the coming Starliner flight will carry astronauts or not, he added. But even if the mission is uncrewed, the agency wants it to be crew-capable — “to have all the systems in place that we could fly a crew with,” Stich said. “As I think about it, it might be there for a contingency situation, as we prepare for whatever events could happen,” he added. “One of the things that I’ve learned in my time at NASA is, always be prepared for the unexpected.”

NASA plans to certify Starliner for operational, long-duration astronaut missions shortly after this next flight, if all goes well.

Stich’s comments took place during a press conference following the return of the Starliner crew on SpaceX’s Freedom capsule.

There had been rumors last year that NASA would pay Boeing to use Starliner on a cargo mission to ISS, thus saving the company the cost of flying another demo mission on its own dime. I suspect those plans have now been squashed by the Trump administration, which is likely to insist that Boeing honor the deal in its fixed price contract. If so, the next flight will once again be a demo mission to prove the capsule’s systems, paid for by Boeing. Whether astronauts fly on it will be a political decision made by Trump, with advice from NASA management. And that decision cannot occur until NASA’s new administrator is confirmed and has had time to review the situation.

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Camille Saint-Saëns – from the Symphony No. 3

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Performed live December 7, 2024 for the reopening of Notre Dame in Paris. Gustavo Dudamel is the conductor, leading Olivier Latry and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Hat tip Judd Clark.

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Firefly releases movie of lunar sunset

9:59 am

Sunset on the Moon
Click for original image.

Using imagery taken by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, the company today released a short movie showing sunset on the Moon, from several different angles.

I have embedded that movie below. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, is one of the photos from that movie. It shows the Sun on the horizon, with the Earth above it and Venus the small bright dot in between.

One alien aspect of the Moon that that while the Sun (and Venus) slowly crossed the sky during Firefly’s two week mission, going from just after sunrise in the east to sunset in the west, the Earth remained stationary in this location above the horizon. This phenomenon occurs because the length of the Moon’s day and its orbit around the Earth are the same length, so that one hemisphere always faces the Earth. Blue Ghost landed in Mare Crisium on the eastern edge of that hemisphere. At that location the Earth always hangs at this spot in the sky.
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Freedom capsule splashes down successfully

3:26 pm

SpaceX’s Freedom capsule has successfully splashed down off the coast of Florida, and has now been fished out of the water.

UPDATE: All four astronauts have now exited the capsule.

In watching the live stream, it is important to once again note that no one involved in this recovery operation is a government employee. The entire operation is being run by SpaceX, a private American company doing this work for profit.

It will take a bit more time before the astronauts come out of the capsule, as they must do some leak checks to make sure everything is safe.

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SpaceX launches 23 more Starlink satellites, including 13 with phone-to-satellite capabilities

2:54 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched another 23 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its nineteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

32 SpaceX
13 China
4 Russia
4 Rocket Lab

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successfully launches, 32 to 24.

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Isar confirms March 20, 2025 for first launch

11:59 am

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

The German rocket startup Isar Aerospace has now confirmed that it will attempt the first orbital test launch of its Spectrum rocket on March 20, 2025, lifting off from Norway’s Andoya spaceport.

Isar announced March 17 that the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued a launch operator license to the company for its Spectrum rocket, launching from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway. The launch, called “Going Full Spectrum” by the company, is a test flight of Spectrum with no customer payloads on board. “Our goal is to test each and every component and system of the launch vehicle,” Alexandre Dalloneau, vice president of mission and launch operations at Isar Aerospace, said in a statement about the upcoming launch.

Isar Aerospace did not announce a specific time for the launch, noting the timing would depend on weather as well as range and vehicle readiness.

This launch is also going to be the first vertical orbital rocket launch from the European continent, and will put Andoya ahead of the three other spaceports being developed in the United Kingdom and Sweden. For the two UK spaceports this launch will be especially embarrassing, as both started years before Andoya but have been endlessly hampered by red tape, government interference, and local lawsuits. Norway meanwhile has moved with alacrity in approving Andoya’s permits and Isar’s launch licenses.

As for Isar, this launch puts it in the lead over the half dozen or so new European rocket startups as the first to attempt a launch. None of the others are close to that first launch attempt, though the German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg came close last year. During its last static fire test of the first stage prior to launch the rocket was destroyed in a fire.

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SpaceX’s manned Freedom capsule has undocked with ISS with its crew of four

12:39 am

SpaceX’s manned Freedom capsule tonight undocked with ISS, carrying with it the two astronauts that launched with it in September as well as the two astronauts that launched on Boeing’s Starliner capsule in June.

At 1:05 a.m. EDT Tuesday, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov undocked from the space-facing port of International Space Station’s Harmony module aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Splashdown is scheduled for 5:57 pm (Eastern) March 18, 2025 off the coast of Florida. I have embedded the NASA live stream below.

Normally the transfer of control of the station from the old crew to the new one takes about a week. In this case NASA cut that transfer time to only three days because of the political desire to get the Starliner astronauts home more quickly. The irony is that NASA decided to leave them up there for almost seven months more than planned in order to disturb its normal ISS launch and crew schedule as little as possible. This effort now to shorten their spaceflight by a few measly days seems quite trivial in comparison.
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Rocket Lab launches the last of five missions for French satellite company

12:31 am

Rocket Lab today successfully completed the last of a five missions contract for the French satellite company Kinéis, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of its two launch pads in New Zealand.

This was Rocket Lab’s second launch in only two days.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

31 SpaceX
13 China
4 Russia
4 Rocket Lab

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successfully launches, 31 to 24.

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Norway awards the German rocket startup Isar Aerospace a two-satellite contract

9:48 am

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

In what appears to be a concerted effort by Norway to cement the establishment of its Andoya spaceport on its northwest coast, last week it awarded a two-satellite launch contract to the German rocket startup Isar Aerospace, launching from that spaceport.

The launch is scheduled until 2028 and will take place from Andøya Spaceport, Europe’s first operational spaceport on the mainland. The agreement between the Norwegian Space Agency and Isar Aerospace involves launching two Norwegian satellites as part of the AOS program, a national maritime surveillance system.

Isar is now gearing up for the very first orbital test launch of its Spectrum rocket, which will also be the very first from Andoya, and the very first from the four proposed spaceports in Europe. Regulatory filings from Norway suggest it will occur during a ten-day launch window beginning on March 20, 2025, but Isar has not yet confirmed this.

Unlike the two UK spaceports, which have been delayed years due to government red tape, Norway’s government has apparently worked hard to cut red tape and help Isar get off the ground quickly. It also appears that Norway’s government is acting to stymie Sweden’s Esrange spaceport, releasing a report last week that suggested it will not give permission for launches over its territory from Esrange.

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Varda’s third capsule begins orbital operations

9:37 am

Varda's space capsule, on the ground in Utah
Varda’s first capsule on the ground in Utah.

The in-space commercial company Varda on March 15, 2025 confirmed that its third capsule has successfully begun orbital operations after its launch on a Falcon 9 rocket, carrying an Air Force payload that will test measuring the capsule’s re-entry speeds in connection with military hypersonic research.

W-3’s payload is an advanced navigation system called an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) developed by the US Air Force and Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated (ISSI). This payload will be tested at reentry speeds it was designed to withstand but has never encountered before.

This payload is part of a $48 million Air Force contract awarded to Varda in December. The company also notes in the press release that it is aiming for a monthly launch rate for its capsules, which provide customers an opportunity to do all kinds of in-space testing and manufacturing. Since this launch took place only fifteen days after the landing of its second capsule, it appears Varda is moving swiftly in that direction, thus providing more business for American rocket startups.

The capsule includes a service module built by Rocket Lab, and will stay in orbit several weeks before it returns to Earth, landing at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, operated by the Australian commercial spaceport startup Southern Launch.

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Norway questions Sweden’s plan to launch orbital rockets from Esrange spaceport

12:56 pm

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

In the capitalist competition between Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom to establish Europe’s prime launch site, Norway’s government has now issued a long study questioning Sweden’s plan to launch orbital rockets from its Esrange spaceport, since polar launches heading north from there will have to cross Norway.

You can read the report here [pdf]. For Esrange to conduct orbital launches it will need the permission of Norway for each launch, and it appears Norway is not satisfied with Sweden’s assessments that say launches can occur safely. The report concludes:

Norway recommends that the relevant Norwegian authorities conduct an assessment of the risks a launch will pose to the people in Norway and Norwegian interests, and determine whether this risk is acceptable, taking into account the interests and safety of the Norwegian people and the severity of the risk.

…Due to the significant economic costs associated with the impact on oil and gas production in
the Barents Sea, CAA Norway recommends that no launches be permitted in areas where there
is any risk to Norwegian oil and gas installations.

The release of this report illustrates Norway’s geographic advantages. The German rocket startup Isar is gearing up to do its first launch from Norway’s new spaceport, Andoya, possibly before the end of this month. It will have a clear path to space. Meanwhile, the American rocket startup Firefly, which wants to launch from Esrange, faces serious regulatory hurdles from neighboring countries, like Norway, because any rocket must fly over their territories.

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Four more launches, two by SpaceX, following manned launch

10:33 am

Following SpaceX’s successfully launch of four astronauts to ISS yesterday afternoon, the launch industry upped the pace by completing four more launches in the next few hours, two by SpaceX, one by Rocket Lab, and one by China.

Beginning with SpaceX, it first launched another one of its Transporter missions, carrying about three dozen smallsat payloads, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg. The first stage completed its thirteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairings completed their eighth and eleventh flights respectively.

Five hours later the company launched another 23 Starlink satellites, the Falcon 9 lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with the first stage completing its eighteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

Rocket Lab meanwhile successfully placed the first of eight commercial radar satellites into orbit for the Japanese satellite company iQPS, its Electron rocket launching from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.

China in turn used its Long March 2D rocket to place two satellites into orbit, lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China. Its state-run press provided little information about either satellite. Nor did it provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages — using very toxic hypergolic fuel — crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

31 SpaceX
12 China
3 Russia
3 Rocket Lab

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successfully launches, 31 to 22.

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SpaceX launches new crew to ISS

10:16 pm

Falcon 9 first stage barreling home to Florida
Falcon 9 first stage barreling home to Florida tonight.

After a scrub two days ago due to a ground equipment issue, SpaceX tonight successfully launched a new crew of four to ISS, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Kennedy in Florida.

The Dragon capsule is Endurance, on its fourth flight. The first stage completed its third flight, landing back in Florida.

This launch will allow the two-person crews launched by Boeing’s Starliner capsule in June and SpaceX’s Freedom capsule in September to come back home on Freedom.

When it was decided not to allow the Starliner astronauts to come home on Starliner because of thruster issues on the capsule, NASA decided to keep its ISS launch schedule as normal as possible, thus forcing that crew to complete a mission of about eight months, with a planned return in February 2025. Initially their Starliner mission was expected to last anywhere from two weeks to two months-plus, depending on how well Starliner functioned while docked to ISS.
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Dovydas – Dreams

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Actually Dovydas is a street performer who provides the background music and asks passersby if they want to sing something. Diane was listening to this across our house and I asked her if that was Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. Nope, but about as good. The singer’s name is Brielle Anderson, as per the first comment on the youtube page.

Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.

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