Astroscale

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Rocket Report: Starliner launch preps; Indian rocket engine human-rated

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Cape-a-palooza —

The Bahamian government and SpaceX signed an agreement for Falcon 9 booster landings.

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The first stage of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket was lifted onto its launch platform this week in preparation for an April liftoff with two NASA astronauts on Boeing's Starliner Crew Flight Test.

Enlarge / The first stage of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket was lifted onto its launch platform this week in preparation for an April liftoff with two NASA astronauts on Boeing’s Starliner Crew Flight Test.

United Launch Alliance

Welcome to Edition 6.32 of the Rocket Report! I’m writing the report again this week as Eric Berger is in Washington, DC, to receive a well-earned honor, the 2024 Excellence in Commercial Space Journalism Award from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Cape Canaveral is the world’s busiest spaceport, and this week, three leading US launch companies were active there. SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket, and a few miles away, Blue Origin raised a New Glenn rocket on its launch pad for long-awaited ground testing. Nearby, United Launch Alliance began assembling an Atlas V rocket for the first crew launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in April. 2024 is shaping up to be a truly exciting year for the spaceflight community.

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.

Astroscale inspector satellite launched by Rocket Lab. Astroscale, a well-capitalized Japanese startup, has launched a small satellite to do something that has never been done in space, Ars reports. This new spacecraft, delivered into orbit on February 18 by Rocket Lab, will approach a defunct upper stage from a Japanese H-IIA rocket that has been circling Earth for more than 15 years. Over the next few months, the satellite will try to move within arm’s reach of the rocket, taking pictures and performing complicated maneuvers to move around the bus-size H-IIA upper stage as it moves around the planet at nearly 5 miles per second (7.6 km/s).

This is a first … Astroscale’s ADRAS-J mission is the first satellite designed to approach and inspect a piece of space junk in orbit. This is a public-private partnership between Astroscale and the Japanese space agency. Of course, space agencies and commercial companies have demonstrated rendezvous operations in orbit for decades. The difference here is the H-IIA rocket is uncontrolled, likely spinning and in a slow tumble, and was never designed to accommodate any visitors. Japan left it in orbit in January 2009 following the launch of a climate monitoring satellite and didn’t look back. ADRAS-J is a technology demonstration that could pave the way for a follow-on mission to actually link up with this H-IIA rocket and remove it from orbit. Astroscale eventually wants to use these technologies for satellite servicing, refueling, and further debris removal missions. (submitted by Ken the Bin and Jay500001)

Software error blamed for Firefly launch malfunction. Firefly Aerospace released an update Tuesday on an investigation into an upper stage malfunction on the company’s Alpha rocket in December. The investigation team, consisting of membership from Firefly, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, Lockheed Martin, NASA, and the US Space Force, determined a software error in the rocket’s guidance, navigation, and control software algorithm ultimately caused the Alpha rocket to release its payload into a lower-than-planned orbit following a launch from California.

Upper stage woes… The software error prevented the rocket from sending the “necessary pulse commands” to control thrusters on the upper stage before its main engine was supposed to reignite. This second burn by the upper stage was supposed to circularize the rocket’s orbit, but it didn’t happen as planned. Still, the Alpha rocket safely released its commercial satellite payload for Lockheed Martin. Although the lower orbit caused the satellite to reenter the atmosphere earlier this month, Lockheed Martin said it was able to achieve many of the objectives of the technology demonstration mission, which focused on testing an electronically steered antenna. This was the fourth launch of an Alpha rocket, and two of them have suffered from upper stage malfunctions during engine restart attempts. Firefly says it is preparing the next Alpha rocket to fly “in the coming months.” (submitted by Ken the Bin)

The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger’s space reporting is to sign up for his newsletter, we’ll collect his stories in your inbox.

A good fundraising round for Gilmour Space. Australian startup Gilmour Space Technologies has raised $55 million Australian dollars ($36 million) in a Series D funding round announced Monday, Space News reports. The funding supports the small launch vehicle startup’s campaign to manufacture, test, and begin launching rockets and satellites from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in North Queensland. Gilmour Space, founded in 2012, is developing a three-stage rocket called Eris. The first Eris test flight is expected “in the coming months, pending launch approvals from the Australian Space Agency,” according to the Gilmour Space news release.

Launching from down under… Gilmour Space is aiming to launch the first Australian-built rocket into orbit later this year. The Eris rocket is powered by hybrid engines, and Gilmour says it is capable of delivering about 670 pounds (305 kilograms) of payload mass into a Sun-synchronous orbit. The $36 million fundraising round announced this week follows a $46 million fundraising round in 2021. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Gilmour Space is aiming for the first flight of Eris in April, and this latest fundraising should give the company enough money to mount four test flights. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

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Before snagging a chunk of space junk, Astroscale must first catch up to one

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This artist's illustration released by Astroscale shows the ADRAS-J spacecraft (left) approaching the defunct upper stage from a Japanese H-IIA rocket.

Enlarge / This artist’s illustration released by Astroscale shows the ADRAS-J spacecraft (left) approaching the defunct upper stage from a Japanese H-IIA rocket.

Astroscale, a well-capitalized Japanese startup, is preparing a small satellite to do something that has never been done in space.

This new spacecraft, delivered into orbit Sunday by Rocket Lab, will approach a defunct upper stage from a Japanese H-IIA rocket that has been circling Earth for more than 15 years. Over the next few months, the satellite will try to move within arm’s reach of the rocket, taking pictures and performing complicated maneuvers to move around the bus-size H-IIA upper stage as it moves around the planet at nearly 5 miles per second (7.6 km/s).

These maneuvers are complex, but they’re nothing new for spacecraft visiting the International Space Station. Military satellites from the United States, Russia, and China also have capabilities for rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), but as far as we know, these spacecraft have only maneuvered in ultra-close range around so-called “cooperative” objects designed to receive them.

The difference here is the H-IIA rocket is uncontrolled, likely spinning and in a slow tumble, and was never designed to accommodate any visitors. Japan left it in orbit in January 2009 following the launch of a climate monitoring satellite and didn’t look back.

That was the case, at least, until a few years ago, when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) partnered with Astroscale in a public-private partnership to demonstrate capabilities the private sector could use to eventually remove large pieces of space debris littering low-Earth orbit. The same robotic technologies could also apply to satellite servicing or refueling missions.

“We are putting this debris removal by robotic technology as one of our main technology development areas because safely approaching an object, and also observing the object and capturing the object, is basically a common technology for any on-orbit servicing,” said Eddie Kato, president and managing director of Astroscale Japan.

In hot pursuit

This mission is called ADRAS-J, short for Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan. “This mission entails the first ever approach of actual space debris and will be a monumental step toward a more sustainable future in space,” Mike Lindsay, Astroscale’s chief technology officer, posted on X.

The ADRAS-J spacecraft, built in-house at Astroscale’s Tokyo headquarters, is about the size of a kitchen oven and weighs roughly 330 pounds (150 kilograms) fully fueled. The satellite launched from New Zealand at 9: 52 am EST (1452 UTC) Sunday aboard an Electron rocket provided by Rocket Lab. About an hour after liftoff, ADRAS-J deployed from the Electron’s kick stage into an on-target polar orbit reaching an altitude of 370 miles (600 kilometers) at its highest point.

The liftoff from Rocket Lab’s spaceport in New Zealand was timed to allow ADRAS-J to launch into the same orbital plane as its objective—the H-IIA upper stage. Astroscale reported the spacecraft was healthy after Sunday’s launch. In a pre-launch interview, Kato said ADRAS-J will begin its pursuit of the spent H-IIA rocket in a couple of weeks, once ground teams complete initial checkouts of the spacecraft.

ADRAS-J will fire thrusters to match orbits with the H-IIA rocket, and as soon as next month, it could be flying within about 300 feet (100 meters) of the abandoned upper stage. Astroscale engineers will initially rely on ground-based tracking data to pinpoint the H-IIA’s location in space. Once in closer range, ADRAS-J will use visible and infrared cameras, along with laser ranging sensors, to transition to relative navigation mode. These sensors will measure the distance, closing rate, and orientation of the upper stage.

Astroscale officials view the switch from relying on ground tracking data to onboard relative navigation sensors as a crucial moment for the ADRAS-J mission. ADRAS-J will circle the rocket to assess its spin rate, spin axis, and the condition of its structure. This is the crux of the challenge for ADRAS-J because the rocket is unpowered and therefore unable to hold position. The upper stage also lacks laser reflectors and targets that would aid an approaching spacecraft.

This will mark the conclusion of the JAXA-supported portion of the ADRAS-J mission. If everything is working as planned, the spacecraft could move closer to the rocket to further validate Astroscale’s sensor suite and automated navigation and guidance algorithms. This will allow the company’s engineers to gather data for a proposed follow-on mission to actually go up and grab onto the same H-IIA upper stage and remove it from orbit.

“We are targeting to go closer, maybe 1 to 2 meters away from the object. Why? Because the next mission will be to really capture the H-IIA launch vehicle,” Kato told Ars last week. “In order to safely approach to a range where a robotic arm is able to be extended, it’s probably like 1.5 to 2 meters away from the object. We want to demonstrate up to that point through this ADRAS-J mission. Then on the next mission, called ADRAS-J2, we are actually equipping the robotic arm and capturing the H-IIA launch vehicle.”

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