Space is hard, maiden flights are really hard

Relativity Space’s 3D printed Terran 1 rocket failed to reach orbit on its maiden launch on Wednesday evening, marking the sixth launch failure worldwide in the last four months. It was the fourth failure of a new booster on its maiden flight, and the fourth mishap resulting from an anomaly with the second stage.

Space Launch Delta (SLD) 45 (United States Space Force) has announced the allocation of launch pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to four startups developing small boosters.

Japan’s new rocket fizzled on the pad last week as the United States and Russia prepared for key launches this week to the International Space Station (ISS).

Japan is set to launch its H3 rocket for the first time and a trio of spacecraft are headed to the International Space Station (ISS) in the weeks ahead. India is also hoping the second launch of its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) will succeed where the first failed.

Rocket Lab is scheduled to launch its Electron rocket from U.S. soil for the first time on Tuesday. The window for the launch three signal collection satellites for HawkEye 360 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Virginia runs from 6-8 pm EST (23:00-01:00 UTC). The company will webcast the launch on YouTube.

SpaceX launched its giant Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida on Sunday night to cap off a busy but failure-plagued period that saw nine launch attempts in three nations over eight days.

A couple of updates on the launch failures this week.

ABL Space reports that all nine E2 engines on the RS1 rocket’s first stage failed simultaneously shortly after liftoff from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Tuesday. The rocket fell back on its launch pad and exploded, resulting in significant damage but no injuries, the company said.

ABL Space’s RS1 rocket failed shortly after liftoff from its launch pad at the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA) on Tuesday, the company said.

NASA will make another attempt to launch the Artemis I mission to the moon on Wednesday as small-satellite launch provider ABL Space Systems prepares for the maiden flight of its RS1 booster from Alaska.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

During the first seven months of the year, five new satellite launch vehicles from Europe, China, Russia and South Korea flew successfully for the first time. As impressive as that is, it was a mere opening act to a busy period that could see at least 20 additional launchers debut around the world.