![The payload fairing for the first test flight of Europe's Ariane 6 rocket has been positioned around the small satellite that will launch it into orbit.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ariane6encap-800x1200.jpeg)
Welcome to Rocket Report edition 6.48! After a dramatic test flight of SpaceX's Starship last week, the Texas team is wasting no time preparing for the next launch. Ground crews are replacing the entire heat sink on the next Starship spacecraft to overcome defects identified during last week's flight. With NASA planning to land astronauts on the moon by the end of 2026, SpaceX will have a lot to accomplish with Starship in the coming months.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below. (The form does not appear on the AMP-enabled version of the site.) Each report includes information about small, medium, and large rockets, as well as a brief look at the three launch schedules:
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Virgin Galactic won't be flying again anytime soon. After an impressive but brief period of spaceflight activity (seven human spaceflights a year, even to suborbital space, is unprecedented for a private company), Virgin Galactic will now be grounded again for at least two years, Ars reports. That's because Colglazier and Virgin Galactic are betting everything on developing a future “Delta-class” spacecraft modeled after the VSS. unity, It made its final flight into suborbital space on Saturday. Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson, now finds itself at a crossroads as it pursues profitability. unity Despite 20 years of development and billions of dollars spent, there was no hope of helping achieve this.
uncertain future … Now that the company spends more capital to bring its two Delta-class spacecraft online, Virgin Galactic's already meager revenue numbers will drop to nearly zero. The goal is to begin flights in 2026. The vehicle is designed to be more easily reusable and can carry six passengers instead of four. Considering that at this point the company is only developing tooling for the vehicle and won't begin manufacturing major components until later this year, this timeline seems very ambitious. Virgin Galactic is betting on Delta-class ships as its stock price has fallen sharply over the past few years. In fact, Virgin Galactic announced a stock split this week to maintain its listing on the New York Stock Exchange. (Submitted by Ken the Bin)
Take a look at North Korea's advancements in rocket technology. Late last month, North Korea signaled that it had made a pretty big leap forward in rocket technology, or, more accurately, that it was still trying. The isolated totalitarian state's official news agency said on May 27 that it had tested a new type of satellite launcher that uses petroleum fuel and cryogenic liquid oxygen propellant. This was a radical change in North Korea's rocket program that surprised outside observers. Previous North Korean rockets typically used hypergolic propellants or solid fuels such as hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, which are also suitable for military ballistic missiles. On the other hand, kerosene and liquid oxygen are not propellants for missiles, but they are good for pure space launchers.
Who is helping?… The launch on May 27 failed shortly after liftoff, and the unnamed rocket was still performing its first stage flight over the West Sea. However, there is specific and circumstantial evidence that Russia played a role in the launch. Although the details are still unclear, North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un visited a Russian spaceport in September last year and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and President Putin said that Russia's support for North Korea's satellite launch program was mentioned as an agenda for the summit. A South Korean Ministry of National Defense official said that Russian experts visited North Korea ahead of the launch on May 27. If Russia exported kerosene rocket engines or entire boosters to North Korea, this would not be the first time Russia has exported launch technology to the Korean Peninsula. Russia provided South Korea's nascent space launch program with three fully equipped rocket boosters for test flights in 2009, 2010 and 2023, before South Korea developed its own fully domestic rocket.
ABL has signed a deal with a new launch customer. ABL Space Systems, which is still working to get its lightweight launcher into orbit, has a new customer. Scout Space announced this week that it has signed a launch agreement with ABL to launch a small spacecraft called “Owlet-01” on the third flight of the ABL RS1 rocket, Space News reported. Scout Space, which describes itself as focused on space security and comprehensive space domain awareness, develops optical sensors to monitor the space environment. Owlet-01 will fly a telescope designed to detect other objects in space, a capability highly sought by the U.S. military.
Still waiting for Flight 2 … The launch contract between ABL and Space Scout depends on the results of the second flight of the RS1 rocket, which ABL has been preparing for the past few months. ABL has not provided a public update on the status of the second RS1 test flight since announcing in March that pre-flight preparations were underway on Kodiak Island, Alaska. The first RS1 rocket landed on a launch pad in Alaska seconds after liftoff in January 2023. RS1 can carry a payload of more than 1.3 metric tons to low Earth orbit. (Submitted by Ken the Bin)