Welcome to Edition 9.02 of the Rocket Report! Our attention in the coming days turns to Asia, where there are a couple of notable rocket debuts. Up first is the Long March 10B on Friday, a medium-lift rocket with a reusable first stage. After launch this stage will attempt a landing on a recovery ship. Then, as early as Sunday, the private Indian company Skyroot may attempt to launch its first rocket, Vikram-1.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
RFA sets launch date for August. Almost two years after an RFA One first stage burst into flames during a static fire test, German rocket-builder Rocket Factory Augsburg is preparing for a second attempt at the rocket’s inaugural flight from SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland, European Spaceflight reports. The launch window will open on August 10, the Spaceport said in its announcement.
Getting close … The notice did not identify a specific operator, stating simply that it was “one of SaxaVord’s clients.” However, it did provide enough detail to identify Rocket Factory Augsburg as the unnamed customer. Additionally, in April, Rocket Factory Augsburg announced that it was working toward a launch window opening on July 1. However, the company stressed that “there are uncertainties, and the schedule may evolve.” Now, it seems, there is less uncertainty.
Final Pegasus rocket delivers its payload. After flying just once in seven years, the air-launched Pegasus XL booster successfully launched the half-ton “Link” satellite for Katalyst Space Technologies on July 4. The mission is intended to rescue NASA’s Swift satellite by boosting its orbit, Ars reports. An aircraft carrying the rocket and satellite took off from the US Army’s Ronald Reagan Space and Missile Test Range on Kwajalein Atoll, a facility leased from the Marshall Islands. This was likely the final time a Pegasus rocket, first deployed in 1990, would fly.
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