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Rocket Lab's Electron returned to flight Thursday night after a launch failure nearly three months ago. The Electron lifted off at 11:05 p.m. Eastern and placed the QPS-SAR-5 radar imaging satellite into orbit for Japanese company iQPS. The launch was the first for Electron since a failure in September that the company blamed on an electric arc in the upper stage that resulted from a "largely improbable" series of events. The launch was the tenth Electron mission this year, including one suborbital launch, a record for the company. Rocket Lab is planning up to 22 Electron launches in 2024. [SpaceNews]
China launched a secretive spaceplane Thursday. A Long March 2F rocket lifted off at about 10 a.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, although Chinese officials did not provide an exact liftoff time or many other details about the launch. The launch placed into orbit what China calls a "reusable test spacecraft" thought to be similar in form and function to the U.S. Space Force's X-37B spaceplane. The launch took place just over seven months after the vehicle returned from a 276-day mission in orbit. [SpaceNews]
The final launch of the original version of the Vega rocket will be delayed to replace missing upper-stage tanks. ESA officials said Thursday that the Vega launch, which had been scheduled for the spring, is now planned for September. They acknowledged there is an "issue" with propellant tanks for its Avum upper stage after a report last week that two of the tanks were misplaced and later found crushed in a landfill. ESA said they will replace the tanks with larger ones used for the Avum+ upper stage on the Vega C, a process that is "feasible" but will require structural modifications to the Avum. Officials also revealed Thursday there was an abort during an upper stage hot-fire test for the Ariane 6 last week that remains under investigation, but with currently no impact on its planned mid-2024 inaugural launch. [SpaceNews]
Amazon says it has successfully tested laser intersatellite links on two Project Kuiper prototype satellites. KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 used onboard optical communications payloads to maintain a two-way link at 100 gigabits per second for around an hour at a time, Project Kuiper vice president Rajeev Badyal said. The satellites were nearly 1,000 kilometers apart during the tests, but the technology is designed to work across distances up to 2,600 kilometers. The success of the tests, Badyal said, will allow the company to incorporate the links on production spacecraft. [SpaceNews]
A Space Force general says the military needs to improve on "dynamic space operations." Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein, who runs the Space Force's Space Systems Command and was nominated to be the next vice chief of the U.S. Space Force, said at the Spacepower conference this week that strategic competition with China in space will require the U.S. to shift its reliance on fixed assets in preset orbits to satellites that can move, be upgraded and adapt their tasks as needed. That includes, he said, making use of in-space refueling and servicing capabilities. However, Space Force chief of space operations Gen. Chance Saltzman cautioned that while dynamic space operations is a "fascinating" concept, more analysis is needed. [SpaceNews]
Congress has passed a defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2024. The House passed the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Thursday on a 310-118 vote, a day after the bill sailed through the Senate on a 87-13 vote. The compromise NDAA bill unveiled Dec. 6 authorizes $841.4 billion for the Department of Defense, or about $600 million below the president's request. That includes $30.1 billion for the Space Force, $79 million below the request. The bill's space provisions include a limitation on funding a new Space Command headquarters until reviews of the basing process are complete and a classification review of major space acquisition programs. [SpaceNews]
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SpaceX's recent string of bad luck on launches has extended to the West Coast. The company postponed a scheduled Thursday night Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, but did not give a reason for the delay. The launch has been rescheduled for 12:19 a.m. Eastern Saturday. The satellites on the launch include the first equipped with direct-to-device payloads. [Spaceflight Now]
Scientists are pleased with the performance of an ocean science satellite launched a year ago. During a session of the AGU Fall Meeting conference this week, the project scientist for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission said that the performance of the spacecraft exceeded "my wildest dreams" with data that was better than requirements immediately after its main instrument was turned on. SWOT, a joint mission between NASA and the French space agency CNES, launched last December to map sea surface heights and water levels in lakes. [SpaceNews]
Small satellite manufacturer Apex will open a new factory next year. The company announced Thursday it selected a nearly 4,300-square-meter facility in Los Angeles for its Factory One, slated to open in the third quarter of 2024. The factory will be able to produce up to 50 of its Aries and larger Nova satellites a year. The first Aries satellite, being built at the company's existing facility in L.A., is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission early next year. [SpaceNews]
A SpaceX executive said the company will continue expanding its Starbase site in South Texas. Speaking at an invitation-only event this week in Brownville, Kathy Lueders, general manager of Starbase and a former NASA associate administrator, said the company plans to build a second orbital launch pad at Starbase to support a higher flight rate. It has also moved engine testing to a new site at a former gun range several kilometers away to minimize beach closures. Lueders said the next Starship launch from Starbase will take place early next year, with "multiple" flights planned for 2024. [myRGV.com]
The crew of the Artemis 2 mission visited the White House Thursday. The four astronauts met with President Biden and Vice President Harris in the Oval Office in an event that was not announced by NASA or the White House in advance. The astronauts said afterwards that the president was fulfilling a promise he made to them when they were selected in April to visit the White House. The Artemis 2 mission, the first crewed flight to the moon since 1972, is scheduled for launch no earlier than late 2024. [AP]
United Launch Alliance confirmed Thursday that the first Vulcan Centaur launch has slipped to January. The company said it was able to complete a full wet dress rehearsal of the rocket this week after a test last week was cut short because of technical problems. The inaugural launch, carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander, is scheduled for Jan. 8 from Cape Canaveral. The launch had previously been set for Christmas Eve. [X @ulalaunch]
ESA is extending the term of its director general. The agency announced Thursday that the ESA Council agreed to a new four-year term for Josef Aschbacher, starting in March 2025. Aschbacher has been head of the agency since March 2021 and the early renewal by the council "signaled its continued trust" in his ability to lead the agency. ESA also announced the appointments of two new directors, Laurent Jaffart as director of connectivity and secure communications and Marco Ferrazzani and director of internal services. [ESA]
| | Don't Be a Fun Sponge
"As a regulator, we're normally seen as the fun sponge. The regulator says 'no.' We tend to be viewed sometimes as a downer on the industry. I will try to get the message across to you today that actually we're far more optimistic than you might think."
– Colin MacLeod, head of U.K. spaceflight regulation at the Civil Aviation Authority, during a panel discussion at a Westminster Business Forum event Thursday on the U.K. space industry.
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