Rocket Report: Pentagon needs more missile interceptors; Artemis II clears review
Welcome to Rocket Report 8.33! NASA officials appear optimistic that the Artemis II mission will launch next month, so confident that they will forgo another refueling test on the Space Launch System rocket to check the integrity of a liquid hydrogen loading line’s fickle seals. The rocket will return to the launch pad next week, with liftoff scheduled for April 1 at 6:24 p.m. EDT (10:24 p.m. UTC). NASA has six launch dates available in early April after the agency added April 2 to the launch window. April 1 and 2 each have launch windows that open before sunset, an added bonus for those of us who prefer a daytime launch, for purely aesthetic reasons.
As always, we welcome reader submissions. 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-range rockets, as well as a quick look at the next three launches on the schedule.
Firefly’s Alpha rocket flies again. Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket successfully resumed flight on Wednesday, March 11, launching a technology demonstration mission more than 10 months after the rocket’s previous launch failed, Space News reports. The launch followed several delays and canceled launch attempts. The two-stage Alpha rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Station, California, and headed southwest over the Pacific Ocean, reaching orbit about eight minutes later. Firefly said the rocket’s upper stage then reignited its engine, demonstrating the restart capability required for some orbit insertion missions. It was the seventh flight of Firefly’s Alpha rocket, capable of carrying more than a ton of payload to low Earth orbit.
Overview of Block II... Recent setbacks for Firefly’s Alpha program include a launch failure last April and a fire that destroyed a booster stage on the test stand. The Texas-based company billed this week’s flight as a purely demonstration mission to validate several improvements to the Alpha Block II rocket configuration, which will debut on the next launch. Block II will include a 7-foot (2-meter) increase in Alpha’s length, consolidated batteries and avionics built in-house, improved thermal protection systems and stronger carbon composite structures built with automated machinery. This week’s flight carried the rocket’s new internal avionics suite and an improved thermal protection system, Firefly said. “Flight 7 provided a critical opportunity to validate Alpha’s performance ahead of our Block II upgrade, and this team knocked it out of the park,” said Adam Oakes, Firefly’s vice president of launch. (submitted by EllPeaTea)
