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First flight-ready Ariane 6 on the way to Kourou. The stages that make up the central core of Europe’s new rocket, Ariane 6, have left mainland Europe and are heading towards Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, according to the European Space Agency. Shipping across the Atlantic, the main stage and upper stage were loaded into the purpose-built hybrid sailing ship Canopée at the harbors of Bremen, Germany, and Le Havre, France. The vessel is due to arrive in Kourou, French Guiana, before the end of February, and the rocket components will be trucked to a hangar at the Guiana Space Center for prelaunch processing.
On track for June … The first flight of Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket remains on schedule for no earlier than June 15. ESA officials set this schedule following a series of checkouts and demonstrations last year using a test version of the Ariane 6 on its launch pad in French Guiana. Once the flight-worthy Ariane 6 arrives in French Guiana, technicians will connect the core stage and upper stage horizontally, then transfer the rocket to its launch pad and raise it vertically. Once upright, two solid-fueled boosters will be installed, followed by the payload shroud, or nose cone, containing the test flight’s satellite passengers. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Starship fully stacked for third flight. Over the last week, SpaceX has rolled out the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage to their launch pad in South Texas. This is in preparation for the third full-scale test flight of Starship, which could happen as soon as early March. On Tuesday, teams lifted Starship on top of the Super Heavy booster to complete stacking of the nearly 400-foot-tall (121-meter) rocket. That was followed by countdown rehearsals and propellant loading tests later in the week. From a technical perspective, it appears as if SpaceX could be ready to launch Starship quite soon.
Pending approval … As with SpaceX’s first two Starship test flights last year, the company will need to receive a commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration before proceeding with the next launch. For this to happen, SpaceX must submit the results of its investigation into what happened on the second test flight in November. That test flight was largely successful, but the Super Heavy booster exploded as it began to maneuver toward a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Then Starship disintegrated in the final moments of its burn around seven minutes after liftoff, just before reaching its desired velocity. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
New Glenn makes an appearance. This week, Blue Origin raised a simulator for its New Glenn rocket vertical at Space Launch Complex-36, the company’s launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This is a sign of progress for the long-delayed New Glenn rocket program, and we should be seeing many more signs of activity at Cape Canaveral in the coming weeks and months if Blue Origin is really on track to launch the first New Glenn by the end of the year. We believe this simulator was built to mimic the dimensions and weight of a New Glenn rocket, allowing workers to test the launch pad’s transporter/erector and strongback.
A first … Blue Origin largely finished construction of the launch pad in Florida a couple of years ago, but this is the first time anything resembling a New Glenn rocket has been seen upright at the launch site. Photographer Max Evans from NASASpaceflight.com captured beautiful views of the New Glenn simulator from a boat just off the coast of Cape Canaveral. The real New Glenn will be a beauty.
ULA still riding high from “perfect” debut of Vulcan. Tory Bruno, United Launch Alliance’s CEO, says the successful inaugural flight of the company’s Vulcan rocket January 8 was “dead nominal” and provided Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander with a “bullseye insertion” into its targeted highly elliptical orbit around Earth, Space News reports. Bruno heralded the outcome of the Vulcan launch as vindication for ULA’s technology and approach to rocket development, which contrasts with the iterative development strategy favored by companies like SpaceX. “You can fly, fail, fix; nothing wrong with it,” Bruno said. Instead, ULA followed a “rigorous design process” with an emphasis on ground testing and computer simulations. “That’s how this was done and my guys just did an outstanding job.”
There’s another way … It’s easy to see why Bruno sees ULA’s approach as a vindication. The Vulcan rocket did its job, and not many companies can say that about the debut flight of a brand new launch vehicle. And Vulcan has a bright future, at least in the near-to-mid-term, with numerous launch contracts with Amazon and the US military. SpaceX’s Starship rocket is the most obvious example of an iterative development, where engineers emphasize flight testing. Proponents of this strategy argue it ultimately results in quicker results, lower costs, and ultimately, a rocket that is just as reliable as a vehicle developed using ULA’s approach. (submitted by Ken the Bin, EllPeaTea, and Jay500001)
Next three launches
February 17: H3 | VEP-4 | Tanegashima Space Center, Japan | 00:22 UTC
February 17: GSLV Mk.II | INSAT 3DS | Satish Dhawan Space Center, India | 12:05 UTC
February 18: Electron | ADRAS-J | Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand | 14:52 UTC
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