Relativity Space has announced that it was ending development of the Terran 1 rocket that failed during its maiden flight last month in favor of developing its larger Terran R launch vehicle.

OneWeb said it can now offer global broadband service following the launch of 36 satellites aboard an Indian LVM III booster on Sunday. Relativity Space looked on the bright side following the failed maiden launch of its new Terran 1 booster. And a new Chinese rocket is set to debut this week.

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.

The seven launches successfully conducted last week were overshadowed by the decision by cash-strapped Virgin Orbit to pause operations for seven days and furlough nearly its entire staff.

Japan’s new H3 rocket failed in flight last week, OneWeb moved within one launch of providing global broadband service, and Relativity Space’s Terran 1 failed to get off the launch pad.

Relativity Space and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will attempt to launch new boosters while SpaceX sends a resupply ship to the International Space Station (ISS) this week.

Terran Orbital subsidiary Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems has been awarded a $2.4 billion contract to supply 300 communications satellites to Rivada Space Networks. The company will build 288 satellites for deployment in low Earth orbit along with 12 spares.

Also news about Airbus, Synspective, Insight Terra and Xplore

Embedded Ventures $100 Million Fund

Los Angeles-based Embedded Ventures has launched a $100 million fund to provide venture capital to commercial and national security companies, with a particular focus on the space sector.

This week on The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston: Tuesday, August 23 — 7 PM PDT (9 PM CDT; 10 PM EDT): Guests: Rand Simberg Policy, News, Events and more with Rand Simberg Wednesday, August 24 — 10 PM PDT (12 AM CDT; 1 AM EDT): Guests: John Batchelor, Dr. David Livingston Hotel Mars TBD Friday, August 26 — 9:30 PDT (11:30 AM CDT; 12:30 EDT): Guests: Barry Matsumori our guest is the COO @ […]

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.