Launch Roundup – Europe’s Booster Blues Worsen with New Vega-C Delay

Welcome to the Launch Roundup! In this edition, we explore why Europe’s Vega-C rocket won’t fly for another year, preview SpaceX’s launch of NASA’s next asteroid mission, and take a look at the busy launch week ahead.

Booster Blues

Europe’s rocket woes keep getting worse. Officials announced on Monday (October 2) that the Vega-C rocket won’t fly until the fourth quarter of 2024 due to the need to redesign the motor nozzle on the Zefiro40 second stage.

The failure of the nozzle’s carbon-carbon throat insert led to the loss of a Vega-C rocket during the booster’s second flight on December 21, 2022. Investigators concluded that the carbon-carbon material supplied by Yuzhnoye of Ukraine did not meet design specifications, though Yuzhnoye disputed the claim.

The Ukrainian throat insert was replaced by one supplied by the ArianeGroup. However, an anomaly occurred when a Zefiro40 motor was tested with the new insert on June 28, 2023.

“The Independent Enquiry Commission concluded that in the current design of the nozzle, the combination of the geometry of the carbon-carbon throat insert and the different thermo-mechanical properties of the new material caused progressive damage of other adjacent nozzle parts and a progressive degradation eventually leading to the nozzle’s failure,” the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a press release. “This phenomenon is not linked to those observed on VV22 [December 2022 flight] with the previous carbon-carbon material.”

Engineers will need to redesign the nozzle and conduct two successful tests before Vega-C can fly again – something now expected during the fourth quarter of 2024.

Vega-C’s grounding and the retirement of Ariane 5 in July leaves Europe short of launch vehicles. The maiden flight of Ariane 6 has been delayed until sometime next year, as testing on the booster continues this Fall. A joint European-Russian program to launch medium-lift Soyuz rockets was suspended after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Vega Launch
October 2023

The penultimate launch of Europe’s only operational rocket, the smaller Vega booster, is scheduled for October 7. Vega will launch an Earth observation satellite for Thailand, a weather satellite for Taiwan, and 10 CubeSats for various European customers. There will be one more launch of the Vega rocket in 2024 before the booster is retired.

Startup companies in France, Germany, and Scotland are developing new launch vehicles. However, the boosters are all designed to launch small satellites, not the larger ones launched by Ariane 6, Vega-C, Vega, and Soyuz rockets.

Upcoming Launches

NASA delayed the launch of the Psyche asteroid mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy by a week to October 12. The spacecraft will explore the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche that orbits between Mars and Jupiter.

“The change allows the NASA team to complete verifications of the parameters used to control the Psyche spacecraft’s nitrogen cold gas thrusters,” NASA said in a mission update. “These thrusters are used to point the vehicle in support of science, power, thermal and other demands, such as spacecraft orientation and momentum management. The parameters were recently adjusted in response to updated, warmer temperature predictions for these thrusters. Operating the thrusters within temperature limits is essential to ensure the long-term health of the units.”

Upcoming Launches

The launch is scheduled for 10:16 AM EDT (14:16 UTC) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA will broadcast the launch on NASA TV and stream it at www.nasa.gov and www.youtube.com/NASA.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V will launch a pair of test satellites for Amazon’s Kuiper broadband constellation. Amazon has received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to launch 3,236 Kuiper satellites.

Virgin Galactic will fly its fourth commercial suborbital flight on October 6. Customers on the space tourism flight include Ron Rosano of the United States, Trevor Beattie of the United Kingdom, and Namira Salim of Pakistan. Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses will join them in the passenger cabin. VSS Unity will be piloted by Kelly Latimer and CJ Sturckow.

Recent Launches

Iran conducted a rare launch when a Qased rocket orbited the Noor-3 reconnaissance satellite on September 27. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps conducted the flight.

Recent Launches

Qased is a three-stage rocket capable of placing up to 50 kg (110 lb) into orbit. The booster uses a liquid fuel first stage powered by unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide. The second and third stages use solid fuel. Qased has been successful on all three of its flights.

SpaceX launched 22 more Starlink broadband satellites into orbit on September 29. Forty-three of SpaceX’s 70 launches this year have been dedicated to orbiting Starlink spacecraft. The company has now launched 5,200 Starlink satellites since February 2018.

Starlink Launches

Launches by Nation

Orbital launches for the year now total 160, with 151 successes and nine failures. If the pace seen in the first three quarters continues, the world will finish up with 213 launches in 2023. There were 186 launch attempts last year.

Led by SpaceX’s 70 launches, US companies have made more than half of all attempts worldwide. China is in second place with 45 launch attempts, followed by Russia with 13 launches.

Launches by Company/Agency

SpaceX has placed more than 1,900 payloads into orbit this year. Elon Musk has said the company will increase its flight cadence to 10 per month during the last three months of 2023 in order to meet the goal of 100 launches.

Launches by Company/Agency

The government-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) is in second place with 31 launches. Roscosmos has conducted 10 of Russia’s 13 launches. No other launch provider has reached double digits.

Launches by Booster

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has flown 66 times without a failure. The nearest competitor is the CASC’s Long March 2 family of rockets.

Launches by Booster

Launches by Spaceport

Florida remains the busiest launch location in the world with 52 flights through the third quarter of 2023. If the current trend continues, the state will end up hosting 69 launches this year. Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is also having a busy year with 21 launches.

Launches by Spaceport

The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center leads all Chinese spaceports with 25 launches. The Xichang and Taiyuan centers are neck and neck for second place with nine and eight flights, respectively. India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center and Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan have hosted seven launches apiece.