Welcome to Rocket Report Edition 7.01! We are compiling this week’s report a day later than usual due to the Independence Day holiday. Ars is starting its seventh year of publishing this weekly roundup of rocket news, and there’s plenty of it this week despite the holidays here in the United States. Worldwide, there were 122 launches that flew into Earth orbit or beyond in the first half of 2024, up from 91 in the same period last year.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small, medium and heavy missiles, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Firefly launches its fifth Alpha flight. Firefly Aerospace put eight CubeSats into orbit on a NASA-funded mission on the first flight of the company’s Alpha rocket since an upper stage malfunction more than half a year ago, Space News reports. The two-stage Alpha rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California late Wednesday, two days after a problem with ground equipment aborted liftoff just before engine ignition. Eight CubeSats come from NASA centers and universities for a variety of educational, research and technology demonstration missions. This was the fifth flight of Firefly’s Alpha rocket, capable of placing about a metric ton of payload into low Earth orbit.
Resolving anomalies This was the fifth flight of an Alpha rocket since 2021 and the fourth Alpha flight to reach orbit. But Alpha’s last launch in December failed to put its Lockheed Martin payload into the correct orbit because of a problem during ignition of its second-stage engine. On this week’s launch, Alpha deployed its NASA-sponsored payloads after a single second-stage burn, then completed a successful engine restart for a change-of-plane maneuver. Engineers traced the problem on the last Alpha flight to a software bug. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Two companies were added to the DoD launch group. Blue Origin and Stoke Space Technologies – neither of which has yet reached orbit – have been approved by the US Space Force to compete for future launches of small payloads, Breaking Defense reports. Blue Origin and Stoke Space join the list of launch companies qualified to compete for launch task orders that the Space Force is putting up for bid through the Orbital Services Program-4 (OSP-4) contract. Under this contract, Space Systems Command purchases launch services for payloads of 400 pounds (180 kilograms) or more, enabling launch 12 to 24 months after a task order is issued. The OSP-4 contract has an “emphasis on small orbital launch capabilities and launch solutions for the mission needs of the Tactical Response Space,” said Lt. Col. Steve Hendershot, chief of the Space Systems Command’s small launch and targets division.
Even a dozen … Blue Origin aims to launch its orbital-class New Glenn rocket for the first time in late September, while Stoke Space aims to fly its Nova rocket on an orbital test flight next year. The addition of these two companies means there are 12 providers qualified to bid on OSP-4 task orders. The other companies are ABL Space Systems, Aevum, Astra, Firefly Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and X-Bow. (submitted by Ken the Bin and Brianrhurley)
An Italian startup tests a small rocket. Italian rocket builder Sidereus Space Dynamics has completed the first test of its EOS rocket integrated system, reports European Spaceflight. That test took place on Sunday, culminating in a firing of the MR-5 kerosene/liquid oxygen rocket’s main engine for about 11 seconds. The EOS rocket is a new design, using a single-stage on-orbit architecture, with the reusable booster returning to Earth from orbit for recovery under a parafoil. The rocket is less than 4.2 meters long and will be able to deliver about 29 pounds (13 kilograms) of payload into low Earth orbit.
A poor operation … After completing integrated field testing, the company will conduct the first low-altitude EOS test flights. Founded in 2019, Sidereus has raised 6.6 million euros ($7.1 million) to fund the development of the EOS rocket. While this is a small fraction of the funding that other European startups such as Isar Aerospace, MaiaSpace and Orbex have attracted, Sidereus CEO Mattia Barbarossa has previously stated that the company aims to “reshape spaceflight into a part of the time and with limited resources.” (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)