by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

On Christmas Day 2021, an European Ariane 5 rocket roared off its launch pad in French Guiana with the most expensive payload the booster had ever carried, the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope. The launcher performed perfectly, sending the most powerful space telescope on a journey to its final destination 1.5 million km (900 million miles) from Earth. The launch was so accurate that Webb should have sufficient propellant to perform science operations for much longer than its planned 10-year lifetime.

There was a collective sigh of relief among the European, American and Canadian scientists and engineers involved in the long-delayed program. It was a superb Christmas gift to a world suffering through the second year of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, November 19th, 2021 (Maritime Launch Services/Nanoracks PR) – Maritime Launch Services, one of Canada’s leading aerospace firms and the owner of the country’s first commercial spaceport, announced that Nanoracks, a Voyager Space company and the leading commercial payload provider to the International Space Station (ISS), will serve as the company’s first client when Spaceport Nova Scotia’s operations go live in 2023. For this first mission, Nanoracks will deploy customer SmallSats and host spacecraft technology demonstrations.

DNIPRO, Ukraine (State Space Agency of Ukraine PR) — The State Enterprise Production Association Southern Machine-Building Plant OHM Makarov (Pivdenmash, formerly PA Yuzhmash) sent a dimensional docking model of the first stage of the Beta medium-range launch vehicle to the customer, Firefly Aerospace. The model was made at PIVDENMASH under a contract with Firefly Aerospace and in accordance with its design documentation. The product will simulate the docking of two to […]

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, May 12th, 2021 (Maritime Launch Services PR)—Maritime Launch Services Ltd. (“MLS” or the “Company”), owner of Canada’s first commercial spaceport, is pleased to announce that it has closed financing for gross proceeds of $10.5 million [US $8.67 million].

The financing was led by PowerOne Capital Markets Limited and Primary Capital Inc. The proceeds of this financing will enable MLS to achieve first flight heritage in 2022 of a small class launcher and mature the site and the Cyclone 4M medium class launch vehicle for launch in 2023 from its state-of-the-art complex near Canso, Nova Scotia.  With construction to begin this fall, Maritime Launch’s commercial launch complex will be the first of its kind in Canada.

DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine (Yuzhmash PR) — On April 28 this year, the contract was signed between Yuzhmash and S7 Sea Launch Limited on the production and supply of Zenit-series launch vehicles. In general, the contract provides for the production of 12 launch vehicles for use in the Sea Launch and Land Launch programs for the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes in the framework of international space projects. […]

Cyclone 4M (Credit: MLS)

HALIFAX, NS – DNIPRO, Ukraine (MLS PR) — Maritime Launch Services (MLS) Ltd., established in Halifax, is pleased to announce it has committed to a launch site location following a study of prospective sites across North America. An exhaustive review was conducted which assessed 14 potential locations over the last year.The preferred site is located in the Guysborough Municipality near Canso and Hazel Hill in Nova Scotia, Canada and would host a commercial launch complex for the Cyclone 4M orbital launch vehicle from Ukraine. The criteria evaluated through the study included access to polar/sun synchronous orbit, very low population density, proximity to multimodal transportation, and interest from the community, province and government.

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Antares vertical on the launch pad on Wallops Island. (Credit: Orbital ATK)

The Antares booster set to lift off on Sunday evening is a re-engineered version of a launch vehicle that exploded spectacularly after launch nearly two years ago.

The key change is the replacement of two Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ-26 engines in the first stage with RD-181 engines produced by NPO Energomash of Russia. The new engines are powered by liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene.

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Zenit lifts off with communications satellite. (Credit: Sea Launch)

It looks as if the moribound Sea Launch company could have a new lease on life.

Majority owner Energia has scheduled a press conference with the S7 Group on Tuesday during the International Astronautical Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico. The invitation promises a major announcement about the future of the long troubled venture.

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The first stage of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares (aka, Taurus II) rocket is shipped out from Yuzhnoye design bureau in Ukraine. (Credt: Yuzhnoye)

The International Monetary Fund estimates the Ukrainian space industry lost up to 80 percent of its revenues following the Russian invasion of the eastern part of the country.

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The first stage of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket is shipped out from Yuzhnoye design bureau in Ukraine. (Credt: Yuzhnoye)

I was just looking at the website for Yuzhmash, which is Ukraine’s principle producer of launch vehicles. I ran across the following letter to employees published on Oct. 10. It includes this rather prediction:

“Pivdenmash [Yuzhmash] is in deep financial crisis, the main factor which is a precipitous decline in production. The current crisis is not irreversible, but the situation is close to the point of no return.

“The actual bankruptcy of the enterprise will result in the loss of Ukraine’s status as a space power, failure of the obligations of the State to enter into international agreements, irreversible loss of proven technologies.”

This was four months ago. And by all accounts, matters have only gotten worse. The fighting eastern Ukraine has intensified. The government’s finances haven’t improved. And employees were given two-month unpaid leaves in late January. That came after many months of 3-day work weeks and partial pay.

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