Boeing needs to improve quality-control work on SLS moon rocket, NASA Inspector General finds

A scathing report from NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has highlighted several critical issues related to the development of the next version of the agency's Space Launch System megarocket, which will likely delay Artemis moon missions. The report, released by NASA's internal watchdog on Aug. 8, focuses on the gigantic Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B and its Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). Block 1B is designed to increase the amount of cargo SLS can carry to the moon. The upgraded version is key to NASA's long-term lunar plans and will be used for Artemis 4, currently scheduled to launch in 2028. The OIG found that work being done by Boeing — the prime contractor for the SLS core and upper stages, as well as the rocket's flight avionics suite — at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans does not meet international standards or agency requirements. This has led to numerous Corrective Action Requests (CARs) issued by the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). A CAR, which can vary in level of severity, indicates that work has not conformed to specific contract requirements.

NASA's Space Launch System rocket launches the Artemis 1 mission, Nov. 16, 2022. (Image credit: Josh Dinner)

According to the OIG report, these quality-control lapses at Michoud are "largely due to the lack of a sufficient number of trained and experienced aerospace workers at Boeing." The report criticizes Boeing's inadequate training and supervision efforts, which fail to mitigate these deficiencies, thereby raising serious concerns about the safety and reliability of the SLS components.

The report also notes growing cost estimates and suggests that Artemis 4 may not hit its expected September 2028 launch date due to such issues.

"We project SLS Block 1B costs will reach approximately $5.7 billion before the system is scheduled to launch in 2028. This is $700 million more than NASA's 2023 Agency Baseline Commitment, which established a cost and schedule baseline at nearly $5 billion," the OIG report states.

"EUS development accounts for more than half of this cost, which we estimate will increase from an initial cost of $962 million in 2017 to nearly $2.8 billion through 2028."

It states that Boeing's delivery of the EUS to NASA has so far been delayed from February 2021 to April 2027. These issues, when combined with other factors, suggest further delays, which would impact Artemis 4.

Boeing's response to these issues has also been found to be ineffective, particularly regarding recurrent quality-control problems.

The OIG's recommendations include developing a compliant quality management training program for Boeing and issuing financial penalties for Boeing's noncompliance with quality standards. A detailed cost overrun analysis on Boeing's EUS development contract is also suggested. NASA agreed with three of four recommendations, but did not agree to institute financial penalties for Boeing's noncompliance with quality-control standards.

The report is another blow to Boeing, whose Starliner spacecraft is currently under scrutiny following its unscheduled, extended stay docked at the International Space Station (ISS) while tests related to problematic reaction control thrusters continue.

It is also another issue for NASA's Artemis program. The Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 missions — the latter being the planned first return of humans to the moon's surface — have this year already been pushed back to September 2025 and September 2026, respectively.

Meanwhile, Artemis' Orion spacecraft, which is built by Lockheed Martin, also faces some trouble. The NASA OIG issued a report in May on Orion heat shield issues, which could further impact the readiness for the Artemis 2 mission, which will send astronauts around the moon.

China’s Space Pioneer pushes towards launch despite static-fire debacle

Chinese commercial launch firm Space Pioneer appears to be moving towards a first launch of its Tianlong-3 rocket despite a disastrous static-fire test in June. Space Pioneer suffered a serious setback in its plans to debut the Tianlong-3 kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket later this year following a static-fire test anomaly June 30. That test saw the first stage escape its test bench and climb into the sky before falling to the ground and exploding. The explosion occurred on a mountainside but was perilously close to inhabited areas, leading to the event being filmed by bystanders. The company was conducting its test as a buildup to an orbital launch of the Tianlong-3, which is benchmarked against the SpaceX Falcon 9. The incident drew widespread attention and no little criticism within China. Space Pioneer initially released a short report on the incident the same day. However, it did not apologize for the event until July 2. Meanwhile, Space Pioneer appears to be proceeding with its plans. Chinese social media posts on July 30 showed a pathfinder article erected at an undisclosed location.

An assembled Tianlong-3 first stage. Credit: Space Pioneer

The test model will be used for integration testing, and procedures required for handling, transporting and erecting a flight rocket.

It is however unclear how Space Pioneer will be able to proceed from this point to an orbital launch attempt. Not only did the company lose its intended flight hardware, but may face regulatory hurdles.

A July 4 post from state media Xinhua on the incident noted that, “the process of climbing to the top of the science and technology industry is not a smooth journey. It is inevitable that there will be setbacks or even failures.” However, a full health check of the commercial sector and assessment and approval processes were mooted.

China opened its space sector to private capital in late 2014 and now boasts around 20 companies focused on launch. Space Pioneer notably became the first Chinese commercial launch company to reach orbit with a liquid propellant rocket with its Tianlong-2 in 2023.

It so far remains unclear if the Space Pioneer incident will significantly slow the company or its competitors. Earlier this year China’s central government designated commercial space as a key industry for support. Reusable medium-lift launchers are also needed to deploy China’s planned low Earth orbit communications megaconstellations.

Competitors Landspace and Deep Blue Aerospace are understood to be preparing for their next vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) tests. These will be for their respective Zhuque-3 and Nebula-1 orbital rockets.

Landspace is all set to follow up its first, 350-meter-altitude VTVL test, conducted in January, with a higher altitude test in August. The new Zhuque-3 test article appears to include grid fins which were absent on the first hop test.

Deep Blue Aerospace is meanwhile preparing for potentially a full duration first stage flight and recovery test. The company aims to carry out its first orbital Nebula-1 launch before the end of the year. China’s highest altitude hop test so far is 12 kilometers, set by state-owned SAST in June.

The Nebula-1 rocket will initially be capable of carrying 2,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO). It aims to become China’s first reusable orbital rocket.

Astranis fully funds Omega with $200 million fundraise

Astranis has raised $200 million to fully fund its Omega program up to the launch of the first next-generation broadband spacecraft in 2026, the geostationary satellite maker announced July 24. The venture has raised $750 million since it was founded in 2015 to provide more cost-effective satellites that, around the size of a dishwasher, are much smaller than classic, school bus-sized geostationary broadband spacecraft. While Omega would be slightly bigger than previous Astranis generations to deliver five times more throughput, CEO John Gedmark said it could still fit up to 12 on a medium-class rocket such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz co-led the Series D funding round with investment firm BAM Elevate. Andreessen Horowitz’s growth fund first invested in Astranis in 2023 when it led a $200 million equity and debt funding round. Investment management firms Blackrock, Fidelity and Baillie Gifford also participated in the Series D fundraise. Astranis, which operates the satellites it builds and leases the capacity over their roughly eight-year design life, declined to discuss any potential customers for Omega. The company has only launched one spacecraft so far: Arcturus in April 2023. Arcturus was initially slated to provide broadband services over Alaska for local telco Pacific Dataport, but suffered a failure of two onboard solar array drive assemblies shortly after deployment.

An Omega satellite would be around 600kg, compared with 400kg for earlier Astranis generations and conventional spacecraft weighing thousands of kilograms. Credit: Astranis

Instead, Astranis moved the spacecraft to a geostationary orbital slot over Asia to help Israeli satellite operator Spacecom meet a regulatory deadline for bringing the position into use.

A following batch of four Astranis satellites were due to fly on a Falcon 9 last year but were delayed after the Arcturus issue.

Astranis said it has fixed the issue on these upcoming satellites, collectively Block 2, for a Falcon 9 launch this year but has not provided more details.

A replacement for Pacific Dataport is one of the four Block 2 satellites. They are due to be followed by five Block 3 satellites slated to launch in 2025 on an undisclosed dedicated rocket.

These nine upcoming satellites are designed to provide 10-12 gigabits per second of throughput for their customers. Integral to an Omega design to provide 50 Gbps of throughput is a large deployable reflector from Louisville, Colorado-based Tendeg.

Larger geostationary broadband satellites can provide significantly more throughput because they have more room for transponders and power — and are also typically designed to be in service twice as long.

However, Astranis and other small geostationary specialists such as Switzerland’s Swissto12 see growing demand for cheaper, more regionally focused spacecraft.

Block 2 also includes a satellite for capacity reseller Orbits Corp of the Philippines and two spacecraft for U.S.-based connectivity specialist Anuvu.

Block 3 comprises another satellite for Orbits Corp, one for Thai fleet operator Thaicom, one for Argentina-based remote connectivity provider Orbith and a pair of spacecraft for Mexican telco Apco Networks.

Mars Odyssey celebrates 100,000 orbits, captures epic view of solar system's largest volcano

NASA's Odyssey spacecraft, the longest-running mission at Mars, circled the Red Planet for the 100,000th time today, the mission team announced in a statement. To celebrate the milestone, the space agency released an intricate panorama of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system; Odyssey captured the view in March. The volcano's base sprawls 373 miles (600 kilometers) near the Martian equator while it soars 17 miles (27 kilometers) into the planet's thin air. Earlier this month, astronomers discovered ephemeral morning frost coating the volcano's top for a few hours every day, offering fresh insights into how ice from the poles circulates throughout the parched world. In Odyssey's latest image of the volcano, the bluish-white band seen grazing Olympus Mons shows the amount of dust floating in the Martian air when the image was taken, according to NASA. The thin coat of purple just above likely hints at a mixture of atmospheric dust with bluish water-ice clouds. The blue-green layer at the top-edge of the world marks where water-ice clouds reach up about 30 miles (48 kilometers) into the Martian sky, scientists say.

On March 11, 2024, NASA's Odyssey orbiter captured an intricate panorama of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in our solar system. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

To capture the latest panorama, scientists commanded Odyssey to slowly rotate such that its camera pointed toward the Martian horizon, capturing views similar to the kind International Space Station dwellers take of Earth."Normally we see Olympus Mons in narrow strips from above, but by turning the spacecraft toward the horizon we can see in a single image how large it looms over the landscape," Jeffrey Plaut, who is Odyssey's project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, said in the recent news release. "Not only is the image spectacular, it also provides us with unique science data."

By snapping similar images at different times during the year, scientists can study how the Martian atmosphere changes over the planet's four seasons, which last from four to seven months each.

Scientists say the groundwork for the latest image began as early as 2008, when another NASA mission named Phoenix landed on Mars. When Odyssey, which served as a communication link between the lander and Earth, pointed its antenna at the lander, scientists noticed its camera was able to view Mars' horizon.

"We just decided to turn the camera on and see how it looked," said Steve Sanders, who serves as Odyssey's mission operations spacecraft engineer at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado. "Based on those experiments, we designed a sequence that keeps [the camera's] field-of-view centered on the horizon as we go around the planet."

The Odyssey mission launched in April 2001 and is managed by JPL. It was NASA's first successful mission to Mars after a pair of failures two years earlier. In 1998, the Mars Climate Orbiter reportedly burned up in Mars' atmosphere after mission engineers mixed up translations between two measurement systems. A year later, the Mars Polar Lander smashed onto the Martian surface due to its engine abruptly shutting off prior to touchdown. Odyssey was therefore widely viewed as a mission of redemption.

Odyssey slid into an orbit around Mars in October 2001, and has since revealed previously hidden water-ice reservoirs just beneath the planet's surface, which may be within reach of future Mars astronauts. The spacecraft also mapped vast swaths of the planet's surface, including its craters, which have helped astronomers decode Mars' history.

The spacecraft's recent milestone of 100,000 orbits means it has covered over 1.4 billion miles (2.2 billion kilometers). The sun-powered spacecraft does not have a fuel gauge, so the mission team relies on their math skills to estimate leftover fuel that keeps the 23-year-old mission running. "Physics does a lot of the hard work for us," said Sanders. "But it's the subtleties we have to manage again and again."

Recent calculations suggest Odyssey has about 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of propellant remaining, which is sufficient to last the legacy mission until the end of 2025.

"It takes careful monitoring to keep a mission going this long while maintaining a historical timeline of scientific planning and execution — and innovative engineering practices," said Joseph Hunt, Odyssey's project manager at JPL. "We're looking forward to collecting more great science in the years ahead."

At long last: Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket set to debut on July 9

Europe's new Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket is set to launch for the first time on July 9 after a series of delays. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Ariane 6 rocket, developed by ArianeGroup, will lift off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The date of the rocket's long-awaited inaugural flight was announced at the ILA Berlin air show on June 5; however, a specific launch time or window has not yet been released. "Ariane 6 marks a new era of autonomous, versatile European space travel," Josef Aschbacher, ESA's director general, said in a statement from the space agency. "This powerful rocket is the culmination of many years of dedication and ingenuity from thousands across Europe and, as it launches, it will re-establish Europe's independent access to space." Ariane 6 is Europe's next-generation heavy-lift launch vehicle, consisting of a main and upper stage and two or four solid rocket boosters. Its reignitable upper stage will allow it to launch multiple missions on different orbits on a single flight, ESA officials said in the statement. The new rocket will replace the venerable Ariane 5, which was retired last July after 27 years of service and more than 100 successful launches. Europe's original plan was to have the Ariane 6 up and running by 2020, allowing for a smooth transition between the two launch vehicles. However, Ariane 6 suffered a series of delays caused by technical issues, COVID-19 and design changes.

 

"I would like to thank the teams on the ground for their tireless hard work, teamwork and dedication in this last stretch of the inaugural launch campaign," Aschbacher said in the statement. "Ariane 6 is Europe's rocket for the needs of today, adaptable to our future ambitions."

With a scheduled launch date officially on the books, ESA and its partners are completing the final steps for liftoff, including a fueling test and practice countdown known as a wet dress rehearsal, which is slated for June 18.

Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket still has to complete several milestones before it can be cleared for its debut flight. (Image credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut)

"This flight will mark the culmination of years of development and testing by the teams at ArianeGroup and its partners across Europe," Martin Sion, CEO of ArianeGroup, said in the statement. "It will pave the way for commercial operations and a significant ramp-up over the next two years. Ariane 6 is a powerful, versatile and scalable launcher that will ensure Europe's autonomous access to space."

While the inaugural Ariane 6 launch is primarily a demonstration flight, it will carry various payloads, which have already been integrated on the rocket's payload carrier. If successful, Ariane 6 could launch on a second flight by the end of the year, with the goal to eventually complete about 10 launches each year.