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Rocket Report: Europe splashes some cash on launch startups; Pallas-1 nears debut
“From here on, Starlink missions out of Florida will fly on Starship.”
Welcome to Edition 9.08 of the Rocket Report! Some major news this week from the state of Louisiana, previously associated with space due to NASA’s aging Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans. Now the state has a chance to become the epicenter of SpaceX’s Starship program as the company plans to invest up to $100 billion to construct factories and multiple launch pads for the super heavy lift rocket. It would utterly transform coastal Louisiana.
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-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
ESA announces big launch challenge contracts. The European Space Agency said Thursday it signed contracts with a handful of European launch startups to help them continue development of their vehicles. “The European Launcher Challenge is ESA’s initiative to expand European launch service supply and ensure more robustness in Europe’s access to space,” the space agency said of the award, which supports the development and operation of small launch vehicles in Europe. For some of these firms, the funding will provide a key lifeline.
And the winners are … Rocket Factory Augsburg, based in Germany and developing the RFA One rocket, received 186.9 million euros and is mainly funded by Germany, with a contribution by the United Kingdom. PLD Space, based in Spain and developing the Miura 5 rocket, received 158.9 million euros and is mainly funded by Spain with a contribution by Germany. Isar Aerospace, based in Germany and developing the Spectrum launcher, received 197.8 million euros and is mainly funded by Germany, with contributions by Austria and Norway. Another contract award process with MaiaSpace is nearing completion, the agency said.
Skyroot is great, but India needs more. Jatan Mehta writes some of the most insightful articles about India’s space program, and we wanted to highlight his six-part series on what he calls “India’s launch vehicle crisis.” Part six of this series was published on Sunday, and it explains why, despite the recent success of Skyroot and its Vikram-1 rocket, India’s growing gap in orbital launch capacity will remain unresolved. “Even if we hope and assume that the thousand-plus people of Skyroot bag a commendable place in the small-lift launch market, that does not in itself solve India’s space access crisis,” Mehta writes.
India’s government needs to be proactive … He notes that the country faces major constraints in spaceports, suppliers, and especially medium- and heavy-lift rockets. “Skyroot’s success with the first flight of Vikram-1 is only the least worst case scenario for India’s launch vehicle crisis,” Mehta says. “It’s not at the peak alongside people’s emotions but at the bare minimum level to cater to but a fraction of India’s needs in space.”
Japanese startup wins launch contract. A Japanese radar-imaging startup has signed an agreement to launch its first demonstration satellite on Space One’s Kairos rocket, Space News reports. Space One and Sarmony announced on August 25 that they signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the launch of Sarmony’s first SAR DiskSat spacecraft on a Kairos rocket in 2028.
A bold choice … Kairos has launched three times to date, in each case failing to reach orbit. On the most recent launch in March, the vehicle broke apart a little more than a minute after liftoff. A Space One representative said the company is completing the investigation into the failure and plans to release more details soon. The company has not announced a schedule for the next Kairos launch.
Falcon 9 Starlink launches from Florida end. It’s the end of an era in Florida, Ars reports. A Falcon 9 launch early Tuesday was the last